


Yesterday, Tomorrow, Forever

by Extraordinarily_Average



Category: Mario & Luigi RPG (Video Games), Super Mario Bros. (Video Games)
Genre: Basically the Dream Team loves each other and are a family, Best Friends, Bisexual Characters, Blood and Violence, Character Development, Discrimination, F/F, F/M, Found Families, Friendship, Gay Characters, Healthy Relationships, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Mario&Luigi Dream Team, Mario&Luigi series, Meddling Kids, Past Character Death, Past Child Abuse, Post-dream team, Royalty, Secret Relationship, grey morality, making amends, wholesome friendships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:42:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24010747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Extraordinarily_Average/pseuds/Extraordinarily_Average
Summary: 9 Years after the events of Dream Team, Mario, Luigi, Starlow and Dreambert are living semi normal lives. When an old foe bring them to save the world again, they find themselves joined with an unlikely partner in Bowser. Throughout their journey they take trips into their pasts to see how they’ve become the heroes they are today.
Relationships: Luigi/Mamekku Ouji | Prince Peasley, Mario/Peach Toadstool, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Starlow/Yumeppu | Dreambert
Comments: 12
Kudos: 16





	1. Prologue: We are the Dream Team

**Author's Note:**

> Heyyo all you lovely people. I’m Ex, while this is my first work on this account, I’ve been writing for quite some time under different names. This is a project I’ve been working on for a bit.  
>  If you’re here from the Mario and Luigi Amino “Hi guys thanks for voting on my poll and supporting my project, hope you enjoyed the Prologue.”  
>  If Not “Hi Lovely Reader I also hope you enjoy”   
>  For the Prologue I tried to give a little taste as to what the rest of the fic will be like. The lines indicate when a memory or flip in time will be.  
> I’ll leave you all to it!

Thunderous applause and triumphant cheers filled the air, it was almost as thick as the feeling of relief that was palpable in the crowd that had gathered outside Pi'illo castle. Word of Bowser and Antasma’s defeat spread as quickly the flying castle’s plummet to the ground. People celebrating their now assured safety could be heard echoed from not only the island, but Mario was sure the entire world. Mario himself felt almost dizzy with the weight that had been lifted off his shoulders, one that has been there for the months he and his friends fought for the Dream Stone that they now, finally, had in their possession. Well they did, but their good buddy the Zeekeeper has other plans after using it to revive all the still petrified Pi’illos on the island. 

“I gotta say, I know we had to destroy it, but I never thought of turning it to coins. In a way that’s kinda brilliant.” Mario’s comment was directed to his brother, but it earned a sharp stare from the newly shock-recovered Dreambert, whom they recently picked off the floor. “Come on man think of your economy!”

“Ya, that’s not how money works Mario.” Starlow stated.

Mario rolled his eyes, “whatever at least I don’t have to pay him now.” 

Luigi, ever the empath, places a hand on Dreambert’s shoulder, “You know it had to be done right, it’s too dangerous to have something so powerful around. People will always be tempted by its power were it to stay.”

The Prince let out a deep sigh, and gave his companions a slight smile, “You speak truth, it is for the best that it’s gone. The world however lost an amazing power due to greed.”

Mario frowned thinking of some way to console his friend, when he realized “Hey we were able to defeat the Dream Stone remember, so doesn’t that mean we have more power than the Dream Stone did. So really the world didn’t lose a great power it just gained another one.” That probably didn't come out as elegantly as he wanted but he still got the message across.

He was relieved when he saw the Pi'illos eyes light up. “I believe you’re right Mario, I guess the responsibility falls on us now we must make our own dreams come true.” 

“Glad you’re feeling better about it Princey.” Starlow smiled as she affectionately bumped her friend’s arm.

Unfortunately the group’s conversation was cut short, as they heard a familiar voice blaire loudly from behind them. “Zee Good people of Pi’illo island, I Monsieur Broque, would like to proudly present vous with your heroes of Pi’illo island!” The four of them turned around in surprise only to see the aforementioned Monsieur Broque now beside them holding a microphone, arms spread as though presenting them to the audience. Of course he would turn this into an event. Mario couldn’t help but think bitterly to himself. The crowd's uproar made the red brother break out of his thoughts. “Et quoi should we call our brave young heroes.” The Brock man passed his microphone to Mario and gave him a gesture as if saying ‘go on now’. 

He looked out into the crowd, thousands were there, around the castle, watching from balconies, people were peering from everywhere trying to catch a peek at the people who saved them. Looking at his friends he saw Luigi sweat from all the eyes on him and kept his eyes glued to the floor as he shuffled uncomfortably. Starlow also seemed to be a bit out of her element, she kept herself glued close to Dreambert as her eyes darted around the audience, while Dreambert stared confidently into the audience in a sure fire attempt to seem unphased by any of this. 

Mario took a breath, uncertain what to say. What to call us?  
————————————————————

Mario rushes up the dusty old staircase, by the stars please let this be the way out. When he reached the top he found a large stone wall that stood tauntingly in front of him. “Damn it” he spat. 

From behind him he heard footsteps following him up the staircase. “Mario what’s wrong?” He heard his brother ask panting from trying to keep up with him. 

“Dead end! how are we ever supposed to get out of this underground!” Frustration heavy in his tone. 

Starlow fell into place from behind the younger brother. Disbelief prickled in her eyes. “But the Pi’illo down there said this is the way-”

“Be at one with waiting,” The star sprite was interpreted by the low voice. Behind her was the Pi’illo Prince who had been accompanying them throughout the pi'illo castle underground with the promise to get them out and give them some information on Princess Peach. All in exchange for Mario teaching him how to save Pi’illos from the nightmare chunks.

Starlow turned to him and snapped “What! does this look like an exit to you!”

“Not at the moment it doesn’t.” Dreambert moved closer to the wall. wiping some dust off before pressing his hand to it and whispering in a language that Mario didn’t understand. Before any of them could open their mouth to ask, the wall split in half at his hand and slid open like a sliding door. Dreambert turned smugly to Starlow, as the doors opened to reveal grass and a bright blue sky. “How about now?”

Ignoring Starlow’s breathless laugh, Mario pushed past the Prince delighted to see the sun and fresh air. “Haha, Thank the Stars! You really came in clutch there Dreambert, I don’t know what we would have done without you.” He said turning around to address the others.

Dreambert shrugged “Nothing, it is a spell for dream magic that unlocks the door, unfortunately you would have been stuck.” 

The Four of them laughed and happily enjoyed the sunshine for a bit. When Luigi was to first one regained his bearing and focused on the issue at hand. “Thanks so much for your help Dreambert… I assume you have a lot to do now,” Luigi trailed off sadly, but he was right Prince Dreambert needed to save his people and The Bros and Starlow had to find Peach. they’ve finished their agreement. 

Dreambert looked at the three of them, in the past couple days he knew him, he didn’t usually stray from his stoic and confident demeanor, but Mario could see the sadness that crossed his face. “I assumed so, yes… Best of luck to the three of you, it was truly a pleasure meeting you.” The Prince turned about to make his way off deeper to mushrise park. 

Mario was getting ready to leave when he was stopped by a sharp “WAIT!” Mario turned around to look at Starlow, she was staring intently at Dreambert who quickly turned at her cry. “Why-why don’t you come with us?” She said quickly so as not to lose his attention.

The Prince seemed baffled by her outburst, “Wha-“

Starlow continued cutting him off as soon as the words left his mouth. “You know so much more about the Dream world then any of us we’re lost without you, and I’m sorry but, you stand no chance out there in our modern world. Stay with us, we can help you help your people and you can help us. We worked so well together and I don’t see why that has to end!” Starlow’s voice flattered, as she noticed the desperation in her rambling, her face turned pink as she trailed off “We’re friends, we should…stick together.”

Mario was frozen in shock that Starlow felt so strongly about this, after all she was the one who put up the most protest about Dreambert joining them. But it seems that she really did grow fond of him over the couple of days. And Mario can’t lie, he felt the same way too, the four got on together like old friends, and despite all their differences they worked surprisingly well together.

While Mario was frozen in his place, Luigi piped up, “I-I agree with Starlow, I still have a lot to learn about the Dream World I want you there to help.” 

He saw his brother turn to him, prompting him to speak too, “I think It’d be great to add another to the squad, the more the merrier, What do you say Dreambert?”

For the first time since they’ve known him the Prince gave them a full genuine smile, “I Would love too, we are friends right?”

“Ya we are!” Mario yelled in excitement, running over to bring the group together again. “We’re a team now, so you know what that means.” 

The other three all looked confused, “No.” Luigi spoke for the group. 

“It means we need a team name!” 

“Does it really?” Starlow sighed and Mario glared at her halfheartedly, 

“It was your idea Starlow and yes it does, I think we should call ourselves…” Mario thought for a second, “Superstar Squad!” 

Starlow looked pensive before saying “I think it’s a little too long what about the Fantastic four!” 

Dreambert gave her a look, “that’s the same length as Mario’s”

“Well you think of a better one then!” She retorted, glad they’re immediately back to normal, Mario chuckled slightly.

“Isn’t that the name of the movie?” Luigi asked. 

“Whatever it was a bad idea, let's move on.” 

The four all stopped and really thought for a minute, that was until Luigi snapped his fingers. “I got it, since we work in the real world and the Dream world, what about we call ourselves the Dream Team!” 

Everyone’s eyes lit up at Luigi’s suggestion. “What’d ya know Luigi had a good idea.” Starlow said cheerily.

Luigi smiled at her before he realized the insult. “Hey!”

“I think it fits rather well.” Dreambert said in agreement.

Mario clapped his brother on the back. “Well done bro that settles it. Alright now to make it official, everybody hands in… or feet Starlow.” Mario put his hand out in hopes the others would follow Starlow and Luigi put theirs in immediately, while Dreambert followed hesitantly.

“What are we doing.” He asked.

Mario was quick to respond, “It’s called a cheer. It's what teams do in sports and stuff.” Dreambert nodded but still seemed confused, “just follow our lead.” He said reassuringly. 

“Alright everybody say Dream Team on three: One!” He looked at Luigi as he nodded, “Two!” Starlow’s smile was bright and amused, “Three!” Dreambert looked around at the other three he seemed legitimately happy. After the countdown the four raised their arms to the sky as they shouted their name.  
————————————————————

“The Dream Team!” Mario said firmly into the microphone. His friends looked at him, in what seemed to be a mixture of surprise and happiness. Of course they had called themselves that many times before but now the whole world knew. The Cameras of news stations and the microphones of reporters pushed to the front of the crowd, the cheers now changed from that of thousands of voices to that of one large one. One that chanted their name. It was enough to distract them from the brigade of questions that were being flung at them by the various reporters. 

Once their attention was directed towards them again a report pushed their way close enough for the four of them to notice. The pink shell top wasted no time asking the question on her mind. “Now that all is said and done and the world is safe another day, there's one thing that is currently on everyone’s mind. What are you all going to do next?” 

“Next?” The question caught the hero’s off guard, for so long their goal has been the same; save the world from eternal nightmares. Not much time to think of a cohesive next. Mario looked to his companions for some support Luigi and Starlow shrugged also at a loss for something to say. 

To Mario’s utter relief Dreambert quickly took the microphone from Mario’s hand, “As for right now our Main priority is to work with the current higher ups on pi'illo island to find a way for the Pi’illos and the new residents of our island to find the best way to comprise in our new kingdom. Work will be done to best incorporate the lost culture and modern world to best suit all of this island’s inhabitants.” The Prince paused, he looked to his sides he gazed warmly at his friends; the four had all grown close together over the months through hardships, dark nights in the wilderness, long travels, brutal fights, cramming into small hotel rooms, talks around campfires and meeting new and strange people. They relied on each other through it all. “And for the four of us… I believe we will be sticking together for a long time.” He said finally.

After Dreambert was done speaking more reporters piped up trying to ask questions but through the crowd they saw a familiar face. “Kylie!!” The team called as the older Koopa pushed her way through the crowd. 

“Oh my, am I glad to see you youngsters again. What do ya say, you wanna give this old girl a good front page shot?” Kylie said, pulling the camera she kept around her neck up to her eye. The Dream Team was more than happy to oblige to their friend's request. “Alrighty get in closer, like y’all like each other.” The group laughs and puts their arms around each other and strikes a pose for the camera as Kylie counts down. 

For the first time since Mario came to Pi’illo island he felt purely unweighted happiness. The nightmare was over and though there is much work to be done for the island, right after Kylie snapped her photo Mario couldn’t help but think. What is going to happen next. He for one couldn’t wait to find out.


	2. A Storm’s A Brewin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bowser Fight a Storm and Mario Jinxes it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all here’s to the first chapter.   
> This one is kinda exposition heavy but I know you enjoy anyway.   
> I’ll put a couple explanations in the end notes, more will be reviled in due time.

“Can you believe it Sire! Today marks three whole years since you’ve given up villainy!” Kamek said to him as the two of them made their way down the hall to his throne room.

The Koopa’s let out a sharp ‘huff’ at the thought, before rolling his eyes, “Don’t tell me you were actually keeping track?” While that does sound like something the Magikoopa would do, Bowser didn’t think his slow dismount off the horse of evil exactly had a specific starting date.

The rhetoricality of his question went unheeded as his royal advisor responded, “Well technically speaking, on March 21st you pulled all of your troops out of the mushroom kingdom and submitted a formal ceasefire.” 

Bowser scoffed again, “Alright, alright, Jeez quit it with the exposition already Kamek.” The two of them finally reached his throne room and Bowser quickly took a seat on his rightful throne. “Besides, It’s nothing to celebrate.” The king grumbled, hoping Kamek would drop the topic entirely. 

Of course he never did regret his decision, though it was tough, leaving the family legacy and all. Bowser knew it was for the best for both his people and his kingdom as a whole. While it has been hard, forming relations with a kingdom that doesn't want to take another chance with you. Overall the quality of life for his people has increased, surely that counts for something right?  
“Well I’m sure your people will find something to celebrate today.” Kamek stated putting an end to the discussion, “Or at the very least your kids will.”

The Koopa king smiled at the thought, “I did it all for them you know.” It was true, his real reason for changing the entire course of his life was for his eight children. He wanted to raise them, see them grow up. Before the time he had to spare for them was few and far between. Between his schemes and plans that needed to be done to keep everything afloat there was hardly any time for them. It was the day of his last escapade to conquer the mushroom kingdom that Jr. came up to him and asked when he’d be back. When he replied that he didn’t know if he’d even be back, it wasn’t sadness and fear in his son’s eyes, it was disappointment as though he just said he’d be off on a business trip and would be back in a few days. 

For the whole time after he couldn’t help but think about his kids, how this was their normal. He for the first time wondered to himself, ‘what if I died, what would it be for? For some stupid land that our ancestors had a feud about thousands of years ago?’ It was then things started to change for Bowser, slowly his schemes became more and more minor until eventually it faded to nothing. And he was happy he got to spend time with his kids and raise his economy, and now he channeled his anger into removing large rocks from around the castle. 

Kamek placed a sympathetic hand on Bowser’s arm. “I know. And they know too.” The room fell eerily silent after the two finished speaking.

“What’s going on? Usually tons of people are here asking useless questions.” Bowser asked looking around. “Don’t tell me a bob omb fell into the moat again.” 

“I believe we would have heard if so, sire” the Magikoopa made his way to look out the window when a familiar Goomba came crashing through the door. 

“Sir, Private Goomp reporting.” 

“Is Something wrong Minion?” He asked, usually with the ‘elite trio’ things are hit or miss, it’s either really important or something trivial like if we should put cantaloupe in the fruit salad or something.

Goomp looked as though he ran a marathon, and took a second to catch his breath. “Sir, a large storm has been spotted in the outskirts of the Kingdom sir.” Bowser was just about to dismiss him with that but the goomba kept going. “It looked really weird Sir, it was black and purple and really loud, so we went to the lab to ask them about and they were running around yelling about the radar picking up on weird energy. They said it was like a category something-“ 

Bowsers felt his stomach drop, ‘was it a hurricane?’ “Okay Goomp, Goomp, slow down, did they say anything else about this storm?” He asked, trying to pry some more information from the private’s ramblings.

“I don’t know, Sir. They said it was really dangerous and sent me up here right away because they said it was approaching fas-“ Goomp was cut off by a giant crash coming from outside. 

The King ran to the window to see a guard tower had collapsed on the ground. But that wasn’t the thing that scared Bowser the most, it was the wall of darkness that was the storm it consumed everything in its path, the deep purple was so dark the king could barely see through it. “Kamek!” He called “Go sound the siege alarm!” 

Bowser was quickly making his way to the door when kamek called after him. “My Lord, where are you going?!” 

Without turning to his advisor, he responded “I’m going to help everyone take shelter.” Before Kamek could reply Bowser was off. He made his way down stairs to the castle lobby, he ordered some guards to stay at the door and let anyone who needed in before taking off to help any stragglers. 

The wind howled and swirled around him, he was lucky he was so heavy or else he’d be worried the wind would blow him off his feet. Through the darkness he guided people to the castle moving debris that fell in his way. While he ran around looking for more people, he noticed all the wreckage that was swirling around in every direction. He was no scientist but he was sure the wind wasn’t strong enough to carry the heavy artillery and large stones that lay around the castle, most of which weighed hundreds of pounds. The thought quickly slipped his mind as one of the castle towers was struck by a cannon ball picked up by the storm. Bowser barely managed to dodge it as the dust kicked up, scratching his face with what he assumed was small fractions of broken infrastructure. 

“Hello! Is there anyone else out here?!” Bowser was yelling at the top of his lungs just to hear himself over the loud crashes and drumming wind. The storm was picking up now, if anyone more was out here he’d have a hell of a time finding them. Reluctantly he figured he would have to go back, he was struggling to his hand in front of his face by now. But just as he was about to head back to the castle he was struck down by a large metal pole. “What the? How-“ 

Cackling cut him off. ‘Why does that sound so familiar’ he thought, pulling his head off the ground to try and see what was going on. He wasn’t expecting what he saw. The choking darkness of the storm seemed to gather all in one place, his eyes widened as he saw a hazy form take shape in it. Long talon like fingers coming from lanky arms, sharp pointed features that made up his face and of course, the sharp yellow eyes. “You’re dead.” Was the only thing Bowser could say, then again he never thought this would be someone he would ever see again.

That ear piercing laughter again, he looked sickeningly delighted, “If I vas vhy would I be here?” Antasma’s voice wasn’t the same from when he knew him, though it still had its screechiness that he remembered, underneath it had a haunting low drone. “If I vas dead I couldn’t crawl out of ze deepest vart of ze dream vorld, and gather enough power to vake you pay.” He laughed wildly as he spoke. 

Bowser stood up, struggling against the wind that picked up around them, “And how are you planning to do that? With your petty little wind storm. Ha, it’s gonna take a lot more to get rid of me bud!” He hoped he sounded menacing enough through all the noise. 

Antasma’s face took on a more serious tone, “Oh I’ll ve back, and vhen I do…” he laughed maniacally again. “You and your puny kingdom vill be ze vrist to know.” 

Bowser gritted his teeth in anger, lunging at his once partner's form, only for it to be dispersed back into the howling wind, the sound of his laughter fading slowly with it. His rising panic and raging fury, gave him the adrenaline to dash back to his castle. Fuming as he made it back inside, much to the relief of all those waiting as Bowser arrived the storm started to settle down. ‘He must be making his way somewhere.’ He thought as he ignored the scene of wounded and shocked minions, while he quickly checked to see if doctors had made it on the scene. 

Once he’s done he storms his way back to the throne room, where Kamek and a couple other of his higher ups are talking. “Kamek!” 

“Yes sire?”

“Get my ship and its crew ready!” Bowser barely spared his advisor a glance as he made his way to his room. 

“Wh- but sir, the storm hasn’t barely just passed?!” The Magikoopa followed close behind his tail.

“Exactly!” He proclaimed opening his bedroom door and haphazardly grabbing things he might need. 

Just as he was about to leave again Kamek stepped in front of him, “King Bowser, would you please tell me what’s going on?” 

The Koopa sighed, “Come I’ll tell you on the way.”

“Everything is prepared Captain.” One of the Koopa’s incharge of the airships proclaimed. 

“Sire, you’re sure you want to do this?” Kamek asked for what felt like the hundredth time.

“It’s not that I want to, I have to.” He replied, taking a step on the ship, “I trust you to take care of things while I’m gone.” Man he hasn’t said that in a while.

Kamek took a breath, he may not say it much but Bowser knew Kamek really cared for him, “I will”

Bowser gave him a firm nod, before heading fully on board the ship and made his way to the helm. “Where to, Sir?” The captain asked.

“Follow that storm.” 

He’ll give it to the guy, the captain didn’t even seem phased. “Alright, You heard him crew!” And before he knew it they were off, time gave them some distance and now Bowser and his crew sailed after the Dark purple storm cloud. “You may as well get yourself comfortable Your Highness. We don't know how long this trip will be.” 

“Alright.” Bowser, knowing there is no way he’ll ever relax after what just happened, folded his arms on the ship’s rails and looked back at his castle, his thoughts drifting to his Children. ‘I’m sorry guys, but this time I have to go. I can’t risk anything happening to you, I hope you’ll understand.’ He couldn’t help but wonder if this was what heroes felt like?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

“So what you’re trying to tell me is that you don’t think all of this could be caused by a regular hurricane?” 

“Dreambert were you even listening to our conversation?” 

“Luigi, Dreambert can you guys give it a rest?” Mario sighed, rubbing his temples. This video call had basically devolved into an argument ages ago and at this point it wasn’t even constructive. 

Luigi has called them to show them the damage from a really weird storm that passed through the Beanbean Kingdom. And from what they saw on scans, just appeared from nowhere. Luigi claimed that the wind was not strong enough to cause the amount of damage it did and is claiming it is a magic storm. Which leads them to where they are now. 

“Tell me Luigi, what proof do you have that it’s a magic storm?” Dreambert, from his little square of the camera crossed his arms waiting for him to say something new. 

Luigi turned his camera towards himself before speaking, “One I sent you all the video, stuff was flying everywhere, two it came out of nowhere on the meteorological scan, three it was crazy!” His younger brother made sure to emphasize his points by holding up the correct number of fingers.

Starlow finally spoke up after sitting relatively silent during the previous debate. “Okay my turn, One I Believe Luigi that it was not a normal storm,” Luigi pumped his fist in celebration exclaiming a triumphant ‘yes’, “I’m not done. Two, We don’t know that it’s a magic storm because FOR THE LAST TIME a magic only happens when a GREAT MAGICAL FORCE IS UNLEASHED.” Dreambert in an attempt to mock his friends copies Luigi fist pump in celebration, receiving an indignant eye roll in return. “Three, you’re both forgetting that Magically CHARGED storms exist and they are just products of magical energy getting swept up into a natural storm.” Mario saw the Starsprite sit back in satisfaction while the arguing parties both wore faces of begrudging understanding. 

Mario chuckled at the scene that played out before him. “That’s why we call you the smart one Starlow. Hey I guess that means you're both wrong.” 

“Hey technically we are both right!” His brother was quick to jump to their own defence.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“Sorry for arguing, Luigi.” The Pi’illo gave his friend a smile, which he waved off.

“No it’s cool we got there eventually.” 

Starlow huffed “I think you mean I got there eventually.” 

Dreambert ignored her knowing she wasn’t being serious, “See Luigi’s my favourite person to argue with because in our debates he doesn’t resort to insulting me like you two.” 

“Awe but there’s so much to insult.” The Starsprite gave him a crooked smile. The group devolved into giggles and laughter before Mario decided to end off their little call. 

“Alright, I still think we should all agree to keep an eye on things from our different fronts, you know just in case anything weird happens with this storm.” He decided, not wanting to forget the issue so soon, “Will you be okay over there Bro.” 

He saw Luigi look around slightly, there did look to be quite a bit of damage, “Ya, we’ll be fine Queen Bean’s already got quite a few people on clean up duty, nothing that can’t be fixed.” While he seemed uncertain, Mario could always count on his brother for looking on the bright side. Luigi paused and looked back at the Camera, “I miss you guys”

“We miss you too,”  
“We miss you too Luigi”  
“I miss you too Bro,” Mario gave his brother one last smile before he saw his camera shut off. “I’ll talk to you guys soon okay?” Mario directed this towards the remaining two who shared a quick goodbye, before he shut off his own Camera. He slumped back on the coach he was sitting on. By the Stars this castle is pink, how long has he been living here again? Married for four years, engaged for almost one, however long it was it takes a lot of getting used to. Some Days he misses living in a normal cozy middle sized house.

“Dad? What are you doing?” Mario couldn’t help to suppress the smile that danced on to his face at the sound of the young squeaky voice. He opened his eyes to try and see where his son was and found him crawling on the couch beside him. 

“Well Markus I was just talking to your aunt and uncles about a big storm that went by where uncle Luigi lives last night.” He told him, while ruffling his short brown hair it’s surprising how much they look alike. Since they were both Starchildren (Children created by and blessed with powers from the stars) technically they weren’t blood related but by tradition the last Starchild is to become a parent to the newest. That’s how 5 years ago Mario met Markus. 

“Oh, is Uncle Luigi okay?” Markus asked, his big blue eyes shining with worry. 

Mario gave him a reassuring look, “Of course he’s okay.”

“Then why did you seem so worried about it?” 

‘Damn this kid is perceptive’ Mario thought to himself, “Well it was really scary so we just wanted to make sure everything was okay.” Markus was used to big things happening, ever since the day the kid was born Mario and the rest of the Dream Team has left on death defying adventure and dealt with large scale catastrophe. He just hopes that the kid doesn’t end up with some kind of anxiety because of all of it. 

Luckily for him Markus seems satisfied with his response. “Okay, Oh Momma wants me to help her bake some cookies, do you wanna come help?” 

Mario paused, not wanting to disappoint Markus but knew there was no way of getting out of what he had to do. “Sorry bud maybe later, I have to leave for a little bit, alright.” 

“Okay, I’ll save you some.” And with that The kid disappeared to the kitchen. ‘Man Mario did you ever think 9 years ago that you’d be a father?’ He chuckled to himself, he never seemed like the settling down type, but here he was first to have a kid, second to get married. Mario picked himself off the couch and headed for the castle's closest exit. He never thought his ‘Profession’ would allow time for a family but, everyone’s wrong about something. 

The streets were always busy this time of day, Toad Town was always bustling but if you avoid the market you can get around most of it. “All I have to do is send an alert through the New World Alliance Database and then I can just kick it for the rest of the weekend.” He sometimes couldn’t believe it himself that the team’s little idea to have allies in different kingdoms around the world, that would provide aid and resources to any kingdom that needed it, actually gained the traction that it did and became the New World Alliance or NWA for short. All because the four of them didn’t think they could be everywhere at once and now it’s one of the biggest organizations in the world. While all four members of the Dream Team were considered Co-founders, they all agree that Luigi is the real leader.

In fact that’s how Luigi ended up living in the Beanbean kingdom in the first place, they needed someone there to set the Beanbean kingdom headquarters in motion and of course his brother jumped at the prospect. ‘That man’s so kind that his first day there he adopted a child off the streets… oh how I wish I was joking’ Mario was honestly a little envious of his little brother’s never ending kindness, ‘Maybe that’s his power I got pyrokinesis and he gets to be the living embodiment of all that’s good in the world.’ He thought ‘Ha now who’s getting the short end of the stick,’

Maybe Mario’s just bitter that he doesn’t get to see his best friend anymore, because no matter how much he calls or messages he’s still miles away. He knows he’s probably being greedy, he has Peach and Markus after all, they are both older now and ready to live their own lives. Mario scoffs at himself, he’s acting like he never sees him, they saw each other a month ago. ‘Maybe because we haven’t been on an adventure in a while’ he thought ‘I should probably be grateful for that, let’s hope I didn’t jinx it’. 

Mario was surprised when he found his thoughts had led him almost all the way to the NWA Mushroom kingdom headquarters. “Just turn the corner and… Oh God.” Mario was stopped in his tracks as he turned the corner he could see the Dark Purple Storm clouds from the video Luigi sent. It's the storm and It’s coming this way. “Nonononono!” Mario sprinted as fast as he could to the headquarters, he tore open the door and ran upstairs to the main office. Employees were standing tensely around until Mario came running in. 

“Sir, the reading from the lab are-“ One of the ladies started but Mario cut her off quickly.

“Put out an emergency alert now, tell everyone to go to shelters, it’s here.” 

“Yes Sir.” As if on cue his workers took off running through the emergency protocol that they had set in place. 

He quickly took off out of the building and started heading for the docks. ‘I need to stop any blimps from taking off.’ As he was running he started to hear the emergency alarm go off, people ran into the nearest houses or buildings for shelter, the cries of children and tense shouting combined with the alarm was almost too much for him, so he had to block out the noise in order to focus on his goal. ‘Get to the dock that’s it, don't stop for anything or anyone.’

The wind started to pick up and Mario was starting to notice the darkness setting over the sun, just as he made it to the docks. Luckily for him many people were already evacuating, just offshore Mario could a boat turning around to get back and his attention was quickly brought to the blimps as he saw two toads struggling to pull down a blimp that was getting caught in the wind. He grabbed one of the free ropes and tugged as hard as he could, fighting against the wind. Eventually they brought it closer to the ground but it was impossible for them to pull it all the way down. 

Gritting his teeth Mario gave the rope one more strong tug before tying the rope to one of the docking anchors on the ground. ‘You could definitely survive a fall from this height… that’s probably not all that reassuring is it? Think Mario think think.’ So he went with the first idea in his head. “Jump  
I’ll catch you!” He yelled to the terrified people stuck in the blimp.

“Are you Crazy?” The pilot yelled back. 

‘Well that’s not a very good way to treat your prince.’ He realized now was not the time, “that or turn off your engine as fall with the blimp the rest of the way.” 

A hooski from inside the blimp was the first to respond. “I don’t know about hoo but I’m going hoo trust Mario.” She looked down at him and Mario tried his best to look Confident. 

“Can I get some more help here?!” He cried and lucky for him a few of those that were still around gathered beneath that blimp. “Alright, jump on your count!” He called back up, trying to hide his concern as the wind picked up more. 

“One, Hoo, Three, Jump!” She hopped down the side of the blimp and to Mario’s delight, landed in his arms. “Hoo, hoo are very strong.” 

“Ya ya thanks alright next!” To his surprise the next couple of passengers went off without a hitch, but the wind got stronger and the rope was wearing thin. “Alright captain, you're the last one, I suggest jumping now!” He hesitated for a second and that was all it took for the rope to snap, ‘no’ “jump!” And with a shriek of terror the Pilot jumped and somehow miraculously landed in the water. “Oh thank the stars… can someone help him out.” 

By now the storm was right upon them, twigs and branches were torn from trees, sails and objects were being ripped from boats, and waves were sloshing up onto the dock. Mario was doing his best to round up everyone on the docks and send them into town as there was no more room left in the marina. “Hurry everyone this way! Cover your heads! Stay undercover! Get inside as soon as you can…” he turned around to make sure nobody was left behind when through the darkness he saw a shadow, it was moving. “Damnit!” He looked back and forth between Toad Town and the silhouette, ‘screw it’ he thought and quickly made his way back to the docks.

It was so dark Mario snapped his fingers to create a flame in hopes it would help him see a little better. When he got closer he started to raise his voice to be heard over the howling wind. “Hey! What are you doing! Get out of here you’ll get hurt-“ the person suddenly became clear to him and man did he wish he didn’t come back here. “Bowser?” 

He turned to the sound of his voice, “Mario!” The Koopa stopped what he was doing. 

‘I haven’t seen him in three years,’ The hero thought. “What are you doing here!” Mario didn’t know if it was hostility or confusion in his voice and he wasn’t sure which one he felt either.

“Well as lovely as a reunion this is, I should be off.” Bowser then returned to untying a blimp from its anchor.

“What are you trying to use a blimp for, I don’t know if you notice we’re in the middle of a wind storm?!” He yelled, narrowly dodging a flying branch that nearly took out his feet.

“The airship followed too close to the storm, got sucked in, crashed, now I need a ride.” As he finished talking the rope still wasn’t untied, he gave up and chose to instead burn the rope off with his fire breath. He hopped on and Mario watched as he turned on the engine and the flame lit up causing the blimp to balloon up. “But really though it was great to see you aggggggggaaaaaiiiiiiiinnn!” And as quick as the wind, Bowser and his blimp got whisked off into the storm. 

“Well along with this storm I’m gonna have to alert everyone that Bowser has officially lost it.” He couldn’t help but shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. “I jinxed it didn’t I?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are some little notes:  
> \- A star child is a reference to Yoshi’s island, it was said that children were created by the stars with special powers  
> \- Mario and Luigi are the only two Starchildern to be related  
> \- Mario has powers, Luigi does not  
> \- Markus is Mario’s adopted son  
> \- Luigi also adopted a child on his first day living in the Beanbean kingdom   
> \- The New World Alliance is basically the United Nations, it’s still starting up and is relatively new  
> \- The Dream Team is in their early 30s while Bowser is in his 40s
> 
> All of this is going to be explained in the subsequent chapters but I wanted to leave this here for now to spare any confusion.
> 
> I love hear any comments, Questions and criticisms. Until next time ;)


	3. A Royal Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bowser crashes into a babysitting gig and Dreambert wishes things were normal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone sorry for the long wait, University’s been busy af, and I haven’t had much free time, but here it is. This chapter is much longer than the previous 2 so I hope you enjoy.

Bowser let out a triumphant laugh as the blimp was whisked away from the dock, “Tough luck Mario but you ain’t gonna stop me this time!” His gloating was cut short by a quick realisation, “How am I going to control this thing?”

The wind whipped around his pull the blimp violently around with it. The gas fire was flickering threatening to blow out with every gust that ripped past him. It was almost impossible to see in the darkness so he ended up fumbling around looking for the controls, until his hand finally reached a lever.

“This one controls gas I’m pretty sure,” He reached around beside it, “so this one must control the direction right?” Figuring he might as well give it a try, he gave the second lever a small tug and he heard the hissing sound of gas releasing, “uh oh,” a second later he heard flames flickering above him, ‘wrong one’ he thought as the blimp shot into the sky bringing him smack dab in the centre of the whirlwind. 

His blimp started spinning faster and faster as he climbed higher into the clouds. Bowser in desperation reached for the other lever, trying his best to pull his way out of the devastating winds. panicked he tugged roughly on the lever, causing the blimp to whip hard right, so hard that Bowser could no longer keep his bearings and he was flung sideways barely managing to to hold on to the side before falling off. 

“Okay we’re okay everything’s fin-“ before he finished the wind quickly whipped the balloon in the opposite direction causing the Koopa to crash head first into the blimps control centre and quickly felt his world fade to black.

———————————————————-

He regained his senses again, they were dull and everything felt cloudy. ‘That’s it I’m dead aren’t I’ he paused his thoughts for a second before realizing something, ‘who would have thought it would be so cold’ He was ready to resign himself to whatever death had for him when he felt something sharp prick at his foot. He winced at the pain, but then subsequently felt the nagging ache in his head and all throughout his body. ‘Wait a minute what?’

“He’s moving men, keep your weapons at the ready.” A deep voice sounded from somewhere behind him. Surprised Bowser slowly opened one of his eyes, curious to see what was happening. Much to his alarm he was surrounded, circled by sharp spears that gleamed harshly in the bright light. ‘What the?’ The King tried to adjust his eyes to the brightness, but everything that was beyond the spear heads was blurry. 

“Ma’am he’s awake!” A different voice called this time, the loud noise made his head hurt even more.

“Let me have a look.” Another voice, this one was unique though, it was soft, high pitched, while the others spoke more harshly this one was calm. It was too familiar. Bowser opened his eyes once more and tried to focus as the spears in front of him moved to the side to make way for someone. He blinked trying to see clearer, but when his vision gave him the whole picture in front of him, he blinked a bit more in disbelief. “Bowser, can you hear me?” She asked, Bowser opened his mouth to speak but was too flabbergasted. ‘How long had it been?’

“Starlow?” He spoke finally, “Are you dead too or?” 

He heard her give a small huff of laughter, “Neither of us are dead as of right now.” Bowser couldn’t help wonder if that was a threat. “Are you going to be able to stand up or do we need to help you?”

“I’ll be fine.” He grumbled as he placed his hands on the ground feeling the snow beneath them for the first time. With some effort he was able to push himself off his stomach, but was only able to get as far as kneeling. He gritted his teeth trying to get over the pain in his head that had stopped him in his tracks. It was only then that he realized the chains that were connected to his arms. Bowser felt trapped by the weapons still pointing at him.

“Give him some space to sit down.” Starlow asked the others and the Koopa found himself gratefully taking a seat. For the first time Bowser was finally able to get a clear view of his assailants, they were a large group of a mix of different races, but most dominatingly Pi’illos. Other than the spears the only uniting them all was the armour they all wore and their military like order. 

Starlow floated in front of him looking him over but saying nothing. “Where am I?” He asked, hoping to get some kind of answers. He finally got a good look at her, he hasn’t seen the girl for what must have been over 4 years, and boy had she changed. The Starsprite he had known was simple, she wore a pair of battered shoes and didn’t really do makeup or jewelry. The women in front of him now though wore a fluffy faux fur, a beautiful Gold locket and he didn’t know much about makeup but must have been wearing eyeliner or something. 

“South side of mount pajamaja.” She answered drawing Bowser out of his thoughts, “You were found by some locals when they heard a crash in the area.” Starlow looked up and Bowser followed her gaze, hanging from a large tree branch up above was the deflated blimp along with the rest of the passenger car broken around it. “Mario sent an alert out that you were up to something so when the report came in we figured it was you.” 

Bowser sighed and rested his head in his hand, angry that he got himself into this situation. When she got no response from him Starlow continued, “This part of the island is pretty remote so we’ll have to walk a bit to get to gondola down, so take as much time as you need.”

The King confused as to what’s going to happen next had a few questions of his own. “Where are you taking me exactly?”

“To Pi’illo castle, the dungeons to be more specific.” The Starsprite answered nonchalantly.

“Why?”

Starlow rolled her eyes, “Because you’re under arrest.”

Bowser furrowed his eyes in indignation, “Under arrest and who gave you the right to be all high and mighty!”

Starlow raised her voice to match his own, “I did.”

“I’m sorry Starlow but I don’t think you can do that. I'm a King.” He replied smugly.

“And I’m the Queen!” She yelled back in frustration. “And I expect you to refer to me as such.” 

He was almost ready to laugh when everything clicked together in his mind, where he was, who she was and of course, who ruled this island. “Oh crap,” he whispered to himself, but a little voice celebrated at the back of his mind ‘I knew it!’. 

Starlow’s glare eventually lightened a bit as she saw the realization hit him. “I guess you have been out of the picture for a while now.” She sighed in resignation, “But I’m surprised how you could be so disconnected.” 

“I’m just upset you didn’t invite me to the wedding.” He joked trying to get the subject off of his lack of knowledge on things going on outside of his kingdom. Not that he cared anyway, it was none of his business.

“Trust me we thought about it.” Starlow shot back. She looked over at a Pi’illo in the accompanying party, who at this point Bowser assumed were royal guards, “Dmitry, how long is our walk going to take?”

“I would guess about 20 minutes, give or take.” He replied, it was the first time the Koopa had seen one of them without their helmets on, he was your standard looking Pi’illo, that head dress or whatever they wore was dark grey with black squares at the corners. Bowser hasn’t seen many Pi’illos, well alive at least, but he wondered if each of them looked distinctly unique.

Starlow shifted her focus back towards him, “will you be able to walk that far yet?” She asked.

“Don’t patronize me, I could walk that in my sleep.” He huffed trying to save some face after everything that happened. He wobbly rose to his feet, one of the guards held a chain that connected to his cuffs, pulled it to assist him in his attempt to balance. “See.” He said, slightly breathless.

“Right, alright men let’s get a move on. Four of you can bring up the rear, someone scouts ahead, the rest of you keep to either side.” As the Queen spoke her guard’s designated the task among themselves and his chain received a tug signaling that he was to get moving.

As they started walking Bowser noticed that Starlow kept pace beside him, “Don’t want any extra protection for yourself, your majesty?” He sneered.

Starlow smirked, “Trust me I’m the one you should be scared of.” 

The King Koopa let out a huff of laughter, ‘some things don’t change’ the group walked in silence for a couple minutes. Bored Bowser decided to make conversation to pass sometime, “So Queen. That’s a big promotion form… what was it again?” Bowser thought for a second before remembering his plot to take over the land of the Starsprites, “The council of the StarSprites.” He was genuinely curious.

This was only heightened when he noticed Dmitry in front of him stiffening and looking back at the person in question. “You don’t have to answer him my Queen.” 

Surprised at the guard’s reaction he looked beside him at Starlow who’s eyes furrowed slightly, before looking back at him. “It’s okay Dmitry,” she paused before continuing, “I left the Council.” Her response was quick and to the point.

Bowser looked at her in surprise, he knew very little about the council, but what he knew from his little take over plan was, she was the youngest Person ever to become a part of it. And It was like one of the highest honours ever and the power they had access to, well let’s say it was enough that Bowser really wanted to get his hands on at the time. 

Hoping to get some more information and also to push some more buttons he pressed further, “You left? Didn’t you dedicate your whole life to that pompous place?” Bowser asked, trying to use the obviously sensitive nature of this subject to get to her.

“Well things change and not everything goes according to plan.” The Starsprite was quick to deflect his questions.

Not yet satisfied with his answer he pressed a little further, “Well that can’t be the only thing. Come on Starlow there must be a story?” He asked, shit-eating grin plastered on his face. 

Starlow rolled her eyes and finally looked to face him, “Do you really wanna know or are you just pulling my leg?”

Putting aside the fact that she didn’t have legs, Bowser responded, “Sure I love a good story. Plus it’ll pass the time a little.” 

The women sighed in resignation, before looking sharply ahead again. “Fine, but I don’t expect any of your snarky interruptions.” 

Bowser shrugged in response watching Starlow out of the corner of his eye, while continuing to watch where he was walking.

“Up until around five years ago I was a full prominent council member as well as a part of the Dream Team. We went all over the world solving problems and fighting evil and I was still trying to balance my work with all the hero business. Lucky for me I was doing a placement in the mushroom kingdom which gave me a bit of wiggle room with my schedule. A placement only given to me as a compromise between me and the council, you know no one nation should own a prophecy and such.” 

Bowser’s face scrunched up in confusion, “Prophecy?” 

“You didn’t know?” Starlow looked equally as perplexed as him. “You know what it doesn’t matter right now.”

Bowser opened his mouth to protest but figured he would be pushing his luck, so remained silent as Starlow continued. Making a mental note for himself to ask about that later. 

“Anyways, all was fine until my placement ended and I was back in the land of the Starsprites. It was then that our head councillor, Cosmos, started to figure that my loyalty was not entirely to the council.”

“Was it?” The Koopa asked quickly.

The Queen paused for a second before responding, “No it wasn’t, it hadn’t been since the day of my first mission.”

“When we met?”

Starlow nodded before continuing her story, “It turned out it was unfeasible for me to remain at the council and continue my hero work so I asked for another placement and for my own selfish reasons I asked for it to be on Pi’illo island.” 

“Selfish as in you wanted to be with Prin-“

He was cut off sharply by Starlow’s response, “I figured you could get that through context!” She took a breath before she continued, “They accepted as my research in magical studies would benefit greatly by working here. Me and Dreambert were already seeing each other before and the closeness did nothing to help our feelings, I was in love, deeply and I hoped that maybe somehow we could stay together in secret. It wasn’t long till the Pi’illo masters found out and they threatened us, told us they would tell the council if we stepped out of line, said that if we made one wrong move Dreambert would be forced to marry the first person they'd give him. So we played by their rules, we both continued our work, continued being heroes until we had a meeting with the council.” Starlow closed her eyes as if envisioning what she was about to tell him. “The Head Pi’illo Master decided to inform Councillor Cosmos. He told everyone in the meeting. I had betrayed the council by entering into a ‘Deviant relationship’ they told me I would tear his kingdom apart, that mixed magic children would be better off dead then abominations. So I had the choice, break it off, never see him or anyone else from the life I made here on land again and remain in the council or leave.” 

“So you left.” He stated, confirming what was left unsaid. Everything fell quiet as Bowser was left to process what he had heard. He would have never thought things would turn out like this, places he thought were paragons of hope could be so cruel and vile to their own people. He felt legitimately angry and he didn’t even like Starlow, no one should be treated like that. The group finally came to a stop. They were at a kind of station looking thingy that had gates leading to a steeper drop of the mountain. Large cables were visible connected by pulleys to huge metal poles that made their way down the mountain. 

“Gondola will be here in about five you’re majesty.” One of the shelltop guards said after checking what must have been a schedule. 

Starlow nodded gratefully to her, “Thank you.” 

Bowser sat down on a large rock by the station the guards around him remained up and alert but Starlow herself seemed relatively relaxed. Bowser guessed now is a better time than ever to ask what was on his mind. “Queen Starlow,” she looked over at him ready to hear what he had to say seemingly surprised by his formality, “What really made your decision to leave the council?”

She looked at him for a second, before gazing off down the mountain, “I realized… I could do a whole lot more good on my own then I ever could with the council. And I was right.” Bowser saw her flash a smile and for one, very brief, second felt happy for her.

—————————————————

Bowser sat on the bed in his cell in the place that was unrightfully called ‘the dungeons’. If there was one thing the King of Koopa’s knew it was what real dungeons looked like. If he threatened his minions with going down here they would probably be more likely to disobey him, there wasn’t even any spikes! It was spacious, had a comfortable bed, clean black metal bars and a sink. They did get one thing right though and it was the mood lighting, big torches, very scary. 

It must have been an hour since they had brought him down here and he had run out of things to criticize about the dungeon and was now bored out of his mind. Just as he was about to resign and try to sleep his boredom away, he heard the telltale sound of a door, that really needed some new hinges, open and close. He was expecting to hear the sounds of footsteps descending the stone staircase, but when none came Bowser figured someone must have opened the door on accident. 

He was about to pull back the bed sheets when a voice from behind startled him. “Good afternoon, King Bowser.”

The Koopa jumped slightly out of surprise and turned to face the person who addressed him. ‘Levitation will be the death of me’ was his first thought when he saw who it was, “Mind to tell me why you’ve got me locked up, King Dreambert?” 

“What’s your guess?” Was the Pi’illo’s only reply, arms crossed. 

Bowser, being unable to tell if he was being sarcastic or not, instead looked the Pi’illo up and down. The last time he’d seen him he was a prince, when they first met he expected to meet a regal, over-confident, who acted holier than thou, that was the very definition of old royalty. In the end what he got was a person who tried to come across like that but was instead just kinda a dork, that was easily argumentative. 

This usually would all be fine, Bowser could understand putting up a front to seem more commanding, not everyone was as big and scary as him. But he watched first hand as he became soft around the edges, overly kind and self sacrificial, he was too gentle to be a good ruler. Bowser had no respect for the kind of leadership that would put a kingdom at risk like that. 

He finally decided to reply, “Your friend told you to.” Mario better not be holding a grudge over a blimp for the stars sake.

Dreambert narrowed his gaze, his deep purple eyes were intense; he'll give him that, “No. I truly hope your memory isn’t so bad as to not remember what happened here nine years ago.” 

“You're not still hung up on this are you?” Bowser sighed, “Isn’t nine years long enough for the statute of limitations to ruin out on this thing.”

“I don’t know how they do it in your kingdom but here we don’t take ‘taking over the world’ lightly.” The other King unfolded his arm to check the time piece on his wrist, “Look, as much as I’d love to stay here and talk all day, I have a meeting with my associates. We will talk about what is going to be done with you and we will organize proceedings promptly. For the time being, you will remain here under the close watch of royal guards. If you are to desire anything you will take to them, you have the right to an attorney as the proceedings begin. Do you understand?”

By the time he finished his long winding speech Bowser was already bored out of his mind again, “Did you get a new outfit?” He still wore a similar cape, it was rimmed with gold and he looked like he was wearing a more mature and modern version of his old outfit.

Dreambert's voice was much lighter as he responded “Yes I did actually-“ he quickly snapped back to his former demeanor, clearing his throat as an attempt to save face, “I’ll assume that you understood, now if you excuse me I have other business I need to attend to.” 

Bowser scoffed as he left, ‘Ha what a tool’, turning back to his cell Bowser figured he’d try and get some sleep, ‘Maybe if I’m lucky I can sleep off this head injury’ he hoped, the long walk and loud conversations did nothing to help the pounding that was still going on inside his head. 

‘I’ll try and splash some water in my face that always helps’ he started to make his way over to the sink as he heard the sound of the same door as before open and close followed by hushed whispers. ‘Must be the guards’ he assumed, not bothering to turn around he continued to the sink splashing some water on his face in an attempt to cool down his headache. 

He gripped the sink willing the throbbing to go down when he heard a high pitched squeal, “Oh my stars!” “No way!” Two voices sounded behind him. 

Quickly Bowser whipped around, his gaze fell onto two small figures. ‘What the?’ Their voices were shrill and squeaky, eyes bright wide and round, they shone with bewilderment, ‘They’re Children!’, “So much for close watch by royal guards. Unless this Kingdom enlists 3 year olds.”

“We are not 3, we just turned 4!” The one on the right protested, she was a small tiny StarSprite, her light yellow star shined brightly above her head, her petite body was the same colour excluding the dark orangey birth marks under her eye, they looked abit like stars actually. She also sported some really nice white shoes. 

“Ya, we’re not babies!” The other backed her up, he was a Pi’illo, his head was orange and face rimmed with gold, on the gold rimmed edges hung small tassels, with little stars hanging off of them, off his neck hung a larger golden star. He was dress rather fancy for a four year old.

“Oh yeah, well then, what brings you down here then.” He asked trying to figure out why there were children in the dungeon, which was starting to feel less like one every second. 

“We heard you were down here and we just had to see if all the stories were true.” The little Starsprite responded.

Even more curious now he pressed again, “Oh really? what stories?” 

The Pi’illo answered this time, “you know the ones about the giant fire breathing turtle that tried to conquer the world and destroy the island a long time ago!” 

‘Stars I did not want to deal with the paparazzi today, how do I get these kids off my back?’ He thought for a second before coming up with a plan, “Well that’s me, in the flesh.”

“Woah, is it true that you can breath fire?” Apparently that was the Pi’illo’s most pressing question but he could roll with that.

“Oh very true, so hot it could burn you to ashes.” Bowser took a menacing step forward, “And wanna know the best thing about these bars?” He reached forward grabbing at his cell bars, leaning down to best face the kid, “Nothing is stopping me from burning you right now.” He let a grin twist on to his face as he waited for the kids to scream and take off running 

The young Pi’illo only gulped and did his best to glare at him, “don’t think you can scare me bad guy, I’m gonna be King someday and Kings are never scared.” The kid puffed his chest out in pride.

Bowser was ready to scoff but for the second time today something clicked in his head, the kids looked exactly like their parents, “You’re Dreambert and Starlow’s kids.” He said finally slowly piecing things together.

The kids nodded, before the boy started to speak again, “Ya, I’m Prince Dreamer.”

“And I’m Princess Skylar, Dreamer and I are Twins.” The Starsprite explained.

Her brother quickly interjected “But I’m older.” He proudly claimed.

“Ya by like 2 minutes!” The princess shot back.

‘Is this entire family gonna be a pain in my shell?’ He wondered.

Dreamer and Sklar finally stopped arguing and turned their attention back to him, “So is all of it really true? Did Uncle Mario, Uncle Luigi and Mom and Dad really defeat you and save the world?” Skylar’s voice was tinged with excitement. 

‘Uncle?’ He thought, as far as he knew only Mario and Luigi were related, ‘It must just be what the kids call their close family friends I guess’ thinking of how his kids call Kamek, “uncle Kamek”. 

Both of them stared insistently at him waiting eagerly for his answer, curiosity burning in their bright purple eyes, ‘just like their father’s’. Bowser figured they weren’t gonna leave unless he gave them what they want. “Yes, The Dream Team destroyed the Dream Stone and stopped me from conquering the world. Are you happy now?” It was so long ago but still his Defeat and his attempt at world domination still felt like rubbing salt in the wound.

“What!”

“No way?”

“Did Mom and Dad force you to say that?”

Bowser was baffled by their questions, isn’t that kind of thing their job, why wouldn’t the kids know what their parents have done? Especially something so well known. “Ya it’s not the most insane thing your parents have done.” For that group this kinda thing was pretty basic.

“What do you mean?” Sklar tilted her head in confusion. 

“They’re world renown heroes, that’s what they do. Other than being a pain in the tail that is.” Do these kids never see their parents or something, or go outside, everyone knows this stuff. “Why do you think they go on all those missions and such, to spread the word of the stars or something?”

The twins looked startled, they looked at each other with wide eyes, “They created the new world alliance, they said those trips were to help people in different kingdoms. They said it was dangerous but I didn’t think it was like that.” Sklar looked almost like she was about to cry.

‘Great I traumatized these children forever, I was just trying to get them to leave me alone’ “I had no clue they didn’t tell you.” He said mostly in disbelief himself. He wasn’t that big on bragging anymore but still if he had done half the things the Dream Team had done, you’d be sure everyone was hearing about it. ‘Did they want to protect them?’.

Dreamer in contrast to his sister was wide eyed in awe, “I can’t believe it, Mom, Papa, Uncle Mario and Uncle Luigi are actually heroes. I thought they just made up that whole story to seem less boring.” 

Bowser puffed a laugh, ‘I can’t believe it, you could be a literal superhero and your kids would still think your lame.’ “Look kids I’m bias I don’t like your parents, but even I’ll admit I’m thankful for all they’ve done in keeping this world in existence. I hope you show some respect to your family.” He didn’t know why he said that, he didn’t respect their parents, especially Dreambert, but as a father he would want his kids to be proud of his accomplishments. ‘I know I haven’t already, but someday they’ll be proud of me for something’.

Skylar smiled and looked at him, “You're not really that much of a bad guy anymore aren’t you.” 

Bowser jolted in surprise, “I think you're misconstruing this. I’m locked up in your dungeon and not a good guy.” He scoffed at the mere thought of it.

The young Starsprite tilted her head, “you don’t have to be a good guy to have good in you, people always change.” He was taken aback, such adult words being said by a child, she’s obviously a bright young kid, “you have changed right,” 

“I…” he didn’t know what to say, had he? “Yes I think I have.” He said after a brief pause. ‘This is ridiculous, I’m talking to the children of my old enemies and they are being nice to me. Even after what I did to their parents and what they did to me. Surly things can’t have changed that much.’ His thoughts were sour but, he really was enjoying talking to them, in a strange way they reminded him of his own kids.

The two kids smiled at him, “Mr. Bowser… that’s your name right?” The little prince asked him.

“Yes it is.”

“I always wondered, why did you and Antasma want to take over the world?” His question was so innocent, he just wanted to understand.

Bowser took a second to think, what was he going to tell the kids. That for the longest time his kingdoms only means of survival was by resorting to stealing and taking over other kingdoms. That a long line of rulers before him built a legacy that was no longer sustainable to follow in. That at the time he was selfish, bitter and angry at the world. That in a way he understood Antasma’s plight and felt compelled to help, “Antasma is easy at first he only wanted freedom. He the power he gained turned him into a monster, he was outcast from his people and was feared by the Pi’illo’s. He thought the Dreamstone would be able to change the world in his favour. At the time I thought we could work together to get what we wanted. He grew too power hungry though, once we got the DreamStone he started to believe that the only way he would ever be truly free was to be revered. He wanted to plunge the world into complete darkness and nightmares and all that Jazz. Obviously I couldn’t have that it wouldn’t be too good for me, so when the time came and the DreamStone finally had full power I betrayed him and took it all for myself.” 

“But what about you?” The other twin piped up, “why did you want it?” 

“I don’t know, I thought if I ruled the world all my problems would be solved. That DreamStone could give me anything I wanted, my kingdom would never have to worry again.” Bowser tried his best to explain what he didn’t even know himself. 

“Your kingdom?” 

Bowser glanced back up at the Starsprite, her tiny star tilted in confusion, he couldn’t help but chuckle fondly, “The Koopa kingdom, you haven’t heard of it?” 

“No,”

“is there a lot of sand there?!” Dreamer’s question was a little out of nowhere and caught him a bit of guard.

“No not really.”

“That’s nice, I don’t really like sand it gets everywhere.” He explained.

Bowser scoffed, “that’s too bad seeing as this island has so much.” 

Dreamer thought for a minute then his eyes lit up, “I can give you some to take to your kingdom if you want!” He seemed proud of his ‘genius’ idea.

His sister glared at him, “and how would he do that,”

“Get a really big bucket of course.” He confidently replied.

Bowser couldn’t hold back his breathy laughter, “I would really like some sand actually-“ 

“Dreamer, Sklar, there you are!” An unfamiliar woman called form beyond his view. Suddenly a lily white Pi’illo came bolting down the stairs towards the children. Her head was decorated with loose sliver swirls and she was dressed in very formal looking clothes. 

The kids eyes lit up in familiarity when she appeared, “Hey Lyra.” Dreamer gave the woman a little wave.

“Lyra you found them?” A voice further away asked. 

“Yes, they’re right down here.” She called back, she seemed breathless in relief. 

“Thank goodness,” the second voice sounded much closer and this time he could make out who it was, “you two have some explaining to do.” Starlow floated into the view of bowsers cell. She was gazing sternly at her children who both were looking pretty sheepish. 

“Hi Mom,” the kids said nervously. 

“Hello dears, now, what in the world are you doing down here?!” Bowser was surprised by how motherly she sounded. 

“Uhhh… we-“ 

Skylar was cut off by her father entering bowser’s view, “More importantly how did you manage to get down here?”

Starlow re-focused her glare onto her husband, “I think my question is a little more important.” 

Dreambert cocked an eyebrow, “Personally I’m more concerned about the fact that children were able to get into the dungeon that is supposed to be secure.” 

‘Nice to see they act the exact same even though they’re married now.’ He thought 

“It was easy just wait for someone to leave then slip in before the door closes.” Skylar explained matter of factly to her Dad. Bowser laughed earning himself a glare from them both, the pi’illo then proceeded to rub his temples in exasperation, muttering something about reminding people to close the door properly.

Starlow rolled her eyes and looked back towards the twins, “Alright now that that’s out of the way, why in the world are you down here!” 

“Umm, we wanted to see the prisoner?” Dreamer’s response was more like a question.

“You were supposed to be staying with Lyra.” She stated firmly, “Now can you tell me how you managed to get away from her?”

Lyra was about to open her mouth to respond but was quickly stopped by King Dreambert holding up a finger. 

Skylar’s head was bowed in nervousness as she spoke, “We asked to play hide and seek, and instead of hiding…” 

“We went looking for the dungeons.” Dreamer finished where his sister trailed off. 

Starlow sighed, “I hate to admit it but that’s actually a pretty good plan.” The Queen’s response earned a choked laugh from her King, who quickly tried to regain his bearings.

Lyra finally spoke up, “I’m sorry but how did you even know there was a dungeon?” She asked the kids. 

The Prince actually piped up at this, “Mom and Dad always say that if we misbehave we will spend time in the dungeon!” His parents grew wide eyed as he spoke and Bowser couldn’t contain his laughter.

“That was a joke Dreamer that didn’t mean we were actually going to throw you in the dungeons.” Dreambert explained to his son.

“Well you wouldn’t threaten us with it if we didn’t actually have one.” Skylar remarked. 

Bowser controlled his laughter, “Aw yes the dungeons, the universal threat of all royal parents.” He scoffed. 

“Back to the matter at hand.” Starlow quickly disregards Bowser's comment and tries to regain the kids’ attention, “why in the stars would you want to go see the prisoner?”

The twins looked at each other before Dreamer spoke, “We wanted to see if the stories were true, that you guys actually saved the world a long time ago.” 

The confession seemed to catch the parents off guard for a second, Bowser waited anxious to see how they would respond, “They are. As are many, many more.” Dreambert confirmed.

The children’s eyes lit up in a mix of excitement and curiosity, “Why did you never tell us about any of this.” Skylar asked the question that seemed to be on everyone’s mind. 

“These things are very complicated Skylar, it’s not something we wanted you to worry about.” He’ll give it to Starlow, she was becoming a natural politician the way she avoided her kids' question.

This sorta answer at least please the children, “So you’re really heroes!”

“If we say yes do you promise to come back upstairs this insistent?” The Starsprite bargained. Her kids nodded enthusiastically, causing her to huff a laugh, “alright then, yes.” 

“Awesome!”

“That’s so cool!”

“Does that mean we get to be heroes too?” Dreamer asked.

“Not till you’re older. And remember what I said.” 

“Yes mom.” He grumbled

“Lyra can we finish our game of hide and seek?” His twin asked. 

Lyra's response was sharp but still rang with fondness, “We’re not playing that for a long while after that stunt you pulled.” The prince and princess huffed in annoyance. “Now come on you two let’s head back home shall we?” 

“Okay.” Skylar and Dreamer turned to follow their mother and Lyra but the little Starsprite stopped and turned back to Bowser who had been rudely forgotten for some time, “Bye Mr. Bowser, see you later.”

The King Koopa waved his hand in farewell as the kids left the dungeons. He was now alone with their father, whose eyes were sharp surely in defensiveness, “Apologies for the distraction King Bowser.” His voice was flat, the Koopa couldn’t make out how he was feeling about the incident.

Bowser shrugged, “Most fun I’ve had all day.” 

“Well then,” the other king seemed to be reorganizing his thoughts before he spoke, “I will be leaving for tonight, my associates will be coming tomorrow and we will decide what to do with you then.” 

He assumed by associates he meant Mario and Luigi, “Alright.”

Dreambert gave him a quick bow, “Farewell, hope you have a good night.” 

As he turned to leave Bowser decided to break a bit of the tension that was forming since the others left, “Cute Kids by the way.” 

This obviously caught Dreambert off guard, but nevertheless he turned back to him, “Thank you.” He uttered, giving him only the smallest hint of a smile before leaving him alone once more.

Tired Bowser retired to his bed for the night unsure of what will be awaiting him when he awakes, only then remembering what brought him here in the first place, “That storm… if that really was Antasma the worst is still to come.” He lay his head on the tiny pillow adjusting till he was a little more comfortable, “Let’s just hope those meat-heads can figure out what the real threat is.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fatigue pulled at Dreambert’s bones, heavy with the weight of the day’s chaos, ‘First the Storm then Bowser what could possibly be next?’ he thought incredulously. He finally saw the door to the Royal living chamber after what felt like forever, ‘I guess I can’t be so upset. Things have been much quieter than normal, if a big storm and foreign dispute are our big issues things must be going well.’

Trailing off his thoughts he opened the door to the place he called home in this huge castle.

“Papa!” The childish squeal was his only warning before a small Starsprite barrelled into him, knocking the wind out of his lungs.

“Hello, Mi amourio.” He greeted as he gently wrapped his arms around the girl, “you haven’t gotten into any more trouble have you?”

“No they have not.” Dreambert felt the tension in his shoulders melt at the sound of his wife’s voice. She rounded the corner of the kitchen with their son as she spoke.

Dreamer’s eyes lit up with excitement, “Hi Papa!”

“Hello dear,” he smiled, picking up the other twin, “it’s late what are the two of you still doing up?” 

“They wanted to see you before they went to bed, to make sure you were okay.” Starlow answered on the kids behalf. She came a little closer before whispering, “I think all the hero stuff has got them a little worried.” 

The king sighed as he looked at his two children, ‘this is why we didn’t want to tell them, they're too young to be worrying about their parents' lives.’ He shook his head of the thought, ‘no I’m going to make sure they have the childhood that I never had.’

Noticing his distress Starlow turned to the kids, “See I told you, There’s nothing to be worried about. Heroes always win.” 

The kids perked up at that, she sounded convincing, but the both of them knew that that was a lie. They probably wouldn’t be as convinced if they knew how many times they lost, much less the times they’ve almost died.

“Well now that Papa’s home, you know the deal, time for bed.” Starlow said, only to be met by two defeated groans. “Come on now, you two know the rules.”

Figuring it would help Dreambert decide to give his kids some incentive, “Actually I just remember I was going to tell you something.”

This obviously piqued their interest, but it also seems to pique Starlow’s too, “What is it!” Skylar prompted.

“Because of Bowser we have a couple things to discuss with Uncle Mario and Luigi. since we don’t know how long things will take, they’ve decided to bring-” 

“Markus and Lucas!” Dreambert’s sentence was finished by two very excited kids. 

“We haven’t seen them in like, forever!” Dreamer exclaimed, only to be met by a look from his sister.

“We saw them like two months ago, Dreamer.”

“Whatever it feels like a long time.” He retorted.

Dreambert chuckled at the two’s conversation, they really did sound like him and Starlow with their bickering, “They’re all going to be arriving before noon tomorrow, so you got to get to bed or else you’ll have no energy.”

Skylar straightened up and locked eyes with him, “Right Papa, we’ll get ready right now so we can get up bright and early to prepare.” She turned around telekinetically grabbing her brother’s sleeve while dragging him to the stairs, “Come on Dreamer, we gotta brush our teeth.”

“Let go of me, I was going to do that myself anyway!” She struggled against his sister’s grip but still followed her up the stairs. 

“We’ll be up to say goodnight in a minute, alright.” Starlow called after them, only to be met with a hurried okay as the two went racing to their room. 

His wife chuckled and gave him a smile, “So they’re bringing the whole family then huh?” She asked after they heard a door slam closed.

Dreambert sighed shifting his gaze to the Starsprite, she looked at him inquisitively he figured she would want to know the plan, “Something weird is going on, the storm, Bowser showing up out of nowhere it all seems too connected to be a coincidence.” He paused and looked at Starlow, she was feeling the same way, they had been doing this for long enough now to know, “They’ve decided that it would be best for us to stay together just in case. We don’t know how long this will turn out to take.” 

Starlow gave him sympathetic smile and leaned into Dreambert, “It’s going to be alright, it’s not like we haven’t dealt with worse,” 

He welcomed her touch, bringing her closer to his chest in a comfortable embrace, “I know it’s just, things were finally starting to settle down a bit, become normal you know.”

Starlow giggles, her breath warm and comforting against his chest, “I don’t think our lives will ever become normal.” He could feel her smile against his shirt, but he couldn’t tell if she meant it in as a good thing or a bad thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always enjoy reading comments and criticism. Thank you so much for reading.


	4. All is Fair in Love and War (part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Starlow reminisces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s finally here, sorry for the long wait. This guy ended up being a bit longer then I expected so I decided to split it up a little so I’d be faster and easier to read. Also this is my first full flashback chapter so those squiggly line all are breaks in time. I hope you enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ow!”

“Oops, sorry Mario.” Luigi quickly apologized for stepping hard on his brother’s heel.

“Hey no problem bro, it’s getting way too dark down here. I can barely see anything!”

Starlow paused, quickly becoming aware that the small bit of light Mario and she produced was barely enough to see in front of their faces, “I don’t know if it’s safe for us to keep moving? We don’t know what’s down here and I don’t want to be running around blind.” She sighed. Starlow really didn’t want to stop, she wanted to get out from this musty old trench and continue searching for the Princess. However she didn’t know what traps or dangers could lay ahead, and she didn’t trust their new ‘companion’’ to be a reliable source of information. 

Speaking of him, for the first time in what felt like hours he finally piped up, “While I cannot assure you that the underground is safe, I do see it to be wise to seek refuge for the night. We can continue our quest again once the sun does rise.”

Prince Dreambert. He was an enigma, of course Starlow knew that his very existence being a thousand year old petrified Prince was one of the main causes for that, more so, he did not help his case with his aloof nature.

“What do you mean you can’t assure us It’s safe?” she pressed, it's only been a day, but Starlow was already getting annoyed by his lack of transparency. ‘Not everything has to be cryptic’ she thought bitterly to herself. 

The Prince ignored the bite in her tone and gave another more satisfying answer, “Should my memory not fail me, I do recall there being protection in place down here. To avoid infiltration of the castle.”

“Why didn’t you tell us that earlier!’ Her anger seeped fully into her tone, “We could’ve been hurt you know!” 

Prince Dreambert let slip a small huff before retorting, “That was not my intention, I do believe most of those defenses to be lost to time now.”

Starlow grumbled in annoyance under her breath, but was cut off by Mario before she could say anything, “Then I think it would be best for us to stay put just in case. even though sleeping on the floor is the last thing I had in mind for a vacation.” Mario’s cheeriness was starting to drain from his voice, ‘he must be really tired’ she thought.

Luigi shrugged, “Well I’ve done enough of that today, what harm is one more.”

After making their decision the group found a small nook to break for the night. Obviously exhausted, Mario and Luigi passed out like a light, Mario giving his cap to his brother to act as a pillow while he fell asleep on Luigi’s stomach. 

Starlow couldn’t help but smile slightly at the sight, steeling her resolve to stay as a lookout for the night. She didn't really need sleep anyway, she wasn’t a stranger to pulling all nighters. Thoughts filled her head, being the overthinker she was, she couldn’t help all the questions that arose from the days events. ‘Where is Peach? What is happening with the Dream World? How are we gonna find her? How are we gonna get out of here?’ She didn’t know how long she’d been thinking but she broke out of it when she heard movement behind her. 

Readying herself to protect the others she spun to the noise only to see Prince Dreambert sitting up. While she could see very little in the faded beams of the moonlight far above, she could feel tensiness radiating off of him. 

“Are you okay?” She asked. Wondering what could possibly be troubling him.  
“Worry not about me, I simply am not fatigued.” He responded, “If you desire some rest I will gladly take up watch in your place.” 

She thought about his offer for a second, “It's okay really. I’m a little too worked up to sleep.” she answered honestly. 

She saw him nod and was surprised to see him get up and move over to her, taking a seat beside her but leaving a fair amount of distance between them. The Prince shifted his gaze up to the sky, she wondered if he was attempting to see the moon too. 

The silence was heavy between the two strangers, wanting to break some of the tension Starlow decided to speak, “What was the point of the castles underground?” It was a simple question, but it was a start. 

Prince Dreambert seemed surprised by that, but answered nonetheless, “I believe the ravine has been here long before the castle was built, while the castle's basement was in construction they decided to use the ravine as a second moat of sorts. It was protected by guards and other defenses, and it proved to be highly effective.” 

Starlow pondered that for a moment, “Couldn’t enemies just, like, float over it you know like you and I can.” 

He narrowed his eyes at her with a quizzical look on his face, “That would be an amazing strategy if not for the fact that both you and I are currently stuck down here.”

Starlow couldn’t help the laugh that broke out of her at his response, she quickly quieted down as not to wake the bros. When she looked back at Prince Dreambert she almost recoiled in shock.

He was Smiling.

It was real and genuine, as if he himself was caught off guard by it. Recovering from her shock Starlow grinned mischievously, “Well what do you know? You can smile after all.”

The Prince’s eyes widened and the smile quickly disappeared off his face, Starlow huffed a laugh again as he rolled his eyes at her. They sat in silence again as the silence washed over them, this time it wasn’t thick or tense it was calm. They stayed like that for a little while before She once again noticed movement beside her. She turned to see Prince Dreambert covering his mouth trying to stifle a yawn, while turning away from her as if he was trying to hide it.

Why would he be trying to hide that he was tried, “Are you sure you don’t want to rest, you look like you could use some sleep-” 

“I am not going to sleep.” he said, the outburst was uncharacteristically shaky and undignified. His eyes were sharp, but not with anger. ‘Was he afraid? Why would the Prince of Pi’illos be afraid to go to sleep?’

“Why not?” She pressed. Of course she didn’t receive an answer, so she pushed harder, “Are you scared?”

He puffed a disingenuous laugh, “Insolence, what would make you think that. I am no child Miss.Sprite.” 

She thought for a minute, no way Prince Dreambert would open up about his fears to a person he just met. However she might know a way to help, “I’ll wake you up you know? If anything happens.”

She met his gaze, his expression was unreadable, but she could feel his surprise, “Wha-”

Starlow cut him off, “You can trust me okay, I promise. If I need you I’ll wake you up.” That was not necessarily a lie, there’s no way that Starlow would need him but that wasn’t the point. He was afraid of going to sleep and that he will never wake up again. He was afraid of eternal nightmares again, but he wasn’t going to let her know that. She needed to reassure him that she will watch over him, “And in the morning when it’s bright enough again I’ll wake you all up and we’ll get going.” she gave him a small smile.

Prince Dreambert looked at her same unreadable expression, but a feeling of calm overtook them again, “Thank you, I will trust you to keep us all safe.” he said, in return he gave her a half smile, ‘close enough’ she thought.

It took him a while to settle in, but eventually out of the corner of her eye she saw the Prince’s breathing turn to a slow rhythmic pattern as he fell asleep.

Starlow didn’t know if he himself knew what he was scared of, but she couldn’t help but hope she helped ease his fears one way or the other. ‘I still don’t know about him, but as annoying as he is he isn’t all that bad. Right?’

The Starsprite stared back up at the walls of the ravine, wondering if she’d ever shake the feeling of the Prince's smile or if she’ll ever see it again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I swear to the stars above if we don’t find Brickle soon I am personally going to kill him.” Starlow’s frustration had boiled over at this point, this moron was nothing more than a waste of their time. 

“Violence will get us nowhere right now, wait until we find him.” Prince Dreambert was searching with her, they had split up to find the Brock person and it feels like they are getting no closer.

“I’m just letting you know, so don’t try and stop me when I do.” They turned a corner on the path they were following, to see a beautiful pond. It would be lovely if she wasn’t so pissed off.

“Starlow why not take a break, it is best for us to level our heads… and our tempers.” The Prince's suggestion was met by a sharp glare from the Starsprite.

“Don’t you go telling me what I need, you do get that the longer we wait the more time we lose on finding Antasma and The Princess right!” She yelled at him.

“Yes, and I know that the longer we continue arguing with each other the more time wasted on finding Mr.Brickle. Now I am taking a break, would you care to join me?” Prince Dreambert set himself where he was hovering making it clear to Starlow that he wasn’t going to discuss the issue any further.

She let out a huff of frustration before reluctantly replying, “Fine.” Figuring that arguing would just prove his point further. 

The two of them sat by the pond, the water was relatively clear and Starlow was intrigued to see some little tadpoles and frogs near the reeds. It had been a couple of minutes and Starlow was already starting to feel better, not that she’d tell The Prince that of course. She couldn’t bear to see that smug look on his face, as if to say ‘I told you so’. 

She had almost forgotten her companion was with her, with him being so quiet. She turned to where he was sitting to see him focused on the water. He seemed mesmerized by it, “Have you never seen water before or something, Princey?’ she asked, humor lighting her tone.

She managed to break him out of his trance and earned a scowl in the process, “I live on an Island Starlow how would that even be possible?” he asked incredulously.

“I was joking, relax.” she rolled her eyes, but continued nonetheless, “I mean you could have been locked up in your castle your whole life, I don’t know. I barely know anything about you.” She realized she may have pushed too far. The Prince was a very private person and over their past week together she had only heard snippets of his past that were thrown in along with information on Antasma. 

Prince Dreambert seemed to be thrown off by her out of the blue statement, “Why in the world would you want to know more about me? I told you all I feel is necessary for our mission.” 

She scoffed, “Cut it out already, I want to know because we’re friends.”

He gave her a sad smile, “I am very sorry Starlow, but if you cannot tell I have never really had many friends.” 

Starlow’s annoyance changed to sorrow, but knowing The Pi’illo the last thing he wanted was any pity, “Well fine then, we can start slowly.” She shifted her body to face him, “Tell me one thing about yourself.”

He seemed puzzled, “Like what?”

She groaned, guessing she may have to hold his hand through all of this, “I don’t know, like… What’s your favourite colour?” she finally asked, easy enough surely.

The look he gave her was like she asked him to drown a puppy, “What, are we children?” 

“Geez, you asked me to give you a question, just answer it!” she retorted.

Prince Dreambert paused, “Umm.... I don’t know how?”

Puffing an annoyed breath Starlow decided that this really would take a lot of hand holding, “Fine I’ll start, my favourite colour is yellow.”

She was not surprised to get a short laugh as a response, “Why didn’t I guess.” Starlow was about to spit back an insult before he cut her off with a quick, “Why?” 

It wasn’t much, but it threw Starlow for a loop, “Why?” she thought for a second before responding, “Well as a kid in the Land of the Starsprites, everything and everyone was a range of white and yellow. At first I hated it, it was boring. I saw it everyday. It wasn’t until I started to work for the council and every day after a stressful day of work or class I would go to the roof and watch the sun as it set beyond the mountains, so bright, warm and ever present. Those times were some of the only times I ever felt at peace a lot, so yellow kinda became my favourite colour.” When she finished talking she realized she had gone on a long diatribe all about the colour yellow, ‘That’s kinda embarrassing.’ she was always one to get a little over excited and ramble. To her surprise however The Prince was watching her, listening with great interest as if she was the only person on earth. Quickly brushing off her embarrassment she quickly shot back, “Okay now it’s your turn, now that you know what to do.”

He closed his eyes, concentrating for a second before finally answering, “I quite enjoy the colour purple. Not the bright flashy one, the one like in the twilight sky.” 

Starlow didn’t know what she was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t that, “Like your eyes.” She blurted out the first thing on her mind. 

He seemed a bit surprised by her association, but gave a small chuckle, “I guess so yes.” He took a breath and continued, “When I was young I often looked out my bedroom window at night, to watch the stars dance as they made constellations. I found that my favorite part of the night was when the sky was a deep purple, I used to wonder if my eyes were cut from the same cloth as that twilight sky.” 

Starlow found herself smiling fondly, his accent and the way he spoke made it sound like he was reciting a poem not telling her what his favourite colour is. Brushing of the thought her grin turned more playful, “See that wasn’t so hard was it. Who would have thought Prince Dreambert would have a favourite colour after all.” 

Instead of hitting her with a comeback The Prince, scrunched his face in displeasure before breaking her gaze, “Starlow, we are friends right?” 

Confused as to what she did wrong she answered his question seriously, “Yes.”

He continued to look away, he almost seemed embarrassed himself, “If you do not mind, would you please just call me Dreambert.”

“Oh” She didn’t realize, but the title did seem very formal, “Ya, of course.” He gave her a smile which she happily reciprocated. Until of course she realized something, “Does that mean you’re okay with the nicknames!” she exclaimed

“Starlow!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This better turn out good.” she mumbled, the camera that she had levitating close to her eye clicked for what felt like the hundredth time today. She was about to snap another one when the branch she sat on started shaking.

“I cannot believe we have to do this, can we not just sign up for another tour?” Dreambert grumbled, as he finally rested both arms on the branch they now shared while he left the rest of his body dangle beneath. 

Starlow groaned in annoyance at being taken out of her zone, “We can’t because all the spots for this week have been taken up and if we want to go we have to pretend to be a part of the local paper.” She sighed as she continued to re-adjust the camera, “So quit complaining and help me take these pictures for Kylie!” 

Dreambert huffed, were Starlow to look down at him she’d bet he’d be pouting, “I don’t see the reason we even have to take this insolent tour, time is of the essence. Plus it is a mountain for stars sake it is not as if they own it.” 

Now frustrated that Dreambert was distracting her, she decided to come up with a plan, “Take it up with the manager then Dreambert, I can’t do anything about it.” She pretended to be distracted, but couldn’t help but grin at what she’d thought up.

He was as oblivious as always, still trying to pull himself up on the branch but failing hilariously, “Or Kylie could just give us the badges, a few photos are not worth as much as the Dreamstone, or potentially the world.” 

She faked a hum in thought before readying herself, “Hey, Dreambert?”

He stopped his struggle with the branch and looked up at her, “Yes?”

“Say Cheese!” she said, shoving the camera in his face and snapped a photo. Startled by the camera flash, he put his hands up to cover his face causing him to let go of the branch and fall to the bush not far below.

Starlow was sure her hysterical laughter could be heard all over Wakeport, but she honestly didn’t care. After a while she managed to catch her breath and looked down at her friend below, who was now tangled in the bush that caught his fall, “You okay down there Princey?”, she managed to say between fits of giggles.

His steely glare shot back at her along with a loud, “You are the worst you know that?!”

Stifling more laughter she responded, “You too, Princey. You too.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey Forgetbert, hurry up it’s time to go!” Starlow called into the bedroom of the hotel the four of them spent the night in. 

She heard a loud groan accompanied by a faint, “When are you gonna let that go, it has been days now.”

The Starsprite laughed before a disgruntled Luigi came through the door, “Starlow what time s’ it?” 

“It’s 9 in the morning, we have to get moving if we want to get to Driftwood Shores by tonight.” She stated. The younger Mario Brother looked tired, her best guess was that the long trip was really getting to him since he was so used to frequent naps along the way.

“‘S Mario up?” Luigi asked with a yawn.  
“Yeah it’s just you two, so like I said hurry up!” she yelled that last part into the room at Dreambert who has been trying his best to ignore them by covering his head with his blanket. ‘At least he’s actually sleeping now.’ she thought, leaving the two to get ready in peace. 

Starlow made her way back to the main room of the suite, Mario looked energized and ready to go. The Starsprite use to wonder that if he sat still for too long the he might burn up completely, “Hey dude, do you want to grab everyone some breakfast with me? There’s a little cafe down the street we can stop at real quick.” 

“Sure, sounds nice.” She figured it would be a nice gesture for her friends who she so rudely woke up.

As they walked she and Mario chatted casually, it was nice even though not too long ago things felt hopeless, they managed to figure out a plan. ‘Everything would turn out okay, once we hide the Princess we can go back to Pi’illo Castle and figure out how to get up to Bowser and Antsama… I hope.’ 

A lul fell in the two’s conversation. Starlow should’ve guessed when she saw Mario’s mischievous grin what he was going to say next, “Sooo, You and Dreambert have been getting along pretty well as of late.” It wasn’t a question, but she knew what he was getting at.

“Don’t start with that Mario, you’ve got about as much tact as a gossip magazine.” She grumbled, unwilling to give him anything he could misconstrue.

“Owh, words cut deep Starlow. I was just pointing it out, why so defensive?” His innocent tone was undercut by his raised eyebrow. 

Sighing she knew saying nothing to that was a death sentence, “Contrary to popular belief, I do actually try to have good relationships with my friends. I know your game man, and I ain't gonna play it.”

Mario smiled and nudged her with his shoulder, “Smart cookie.” the older brother resigned, “You do know it’s okay though, right?” his voice was more serious this time.

“What’s okay?” she gave him a look of pure confusion.

“Liking someone, it’s okay. It’s not scary or wrong, you don’t always have to protect yourself from those feelings.” The hero's genuine expression made Starlow believe he wasn’t making a joke.

She swallowed, as dense as Mario could be sometimes it was terrifying how much he often knew, “I know.” She said, unsure if she was able to convince either Mario or herself. 

Despite that he gave her a reassuring pat on the back and quickly changed the subject, “So what do you think the others would like, croissants or muffins?” 

Starlow chuckled, “You’re asking the real hard hitting questions today, huh Mario.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“BACK OFF YOU GOOD-FOR-NOTHING DEADBEATS!” Starlow launched a volley of attacks at the Bandits, Shy Guys and… whatever the heck those cactus things are called. While looking for the dozing mattress in Dozing Sands they had to cross into an area that, according to Brita, has been untouched since before they started working here.

Of course as soon as they stepped foot over the threshold it seemed like every enemy in a fifty mile radius was alerted to the ‘fresh meat’ that was her and her friends. Of course despite them all being competent fighters the overwhelming amount of attackers was far too much for them to handle. 

Now split up from her friends, exhausted, and backed into a corner she was getting desperate. Concentrating hard she focused all her energy on creating a field around herself to push back her attackers. She held her breath as she caused the field to brust hopefully delivering a strong enough blow to knock them back, and well it worked. Kinda. Because right behind those she sent flying was even more of the annoying monsters.

‘Amazing how could this possibly get any worse?’ she closed her eyes once, more backing up and trying to think of a spell to get herself out of this when…

(Shink) 

The loud metallic slice of a sword broke her from her thoughts. ‘Oh of course, that’s how it could get worse.’ she thought bitterly. Reluctantly she opened her eyes already knowing the sight she would be greeted with, “You know you didn’t have to do that. I was just fine on my own.” she prefaced before he could say anything.

The Prince spun his sword around his fingers cockily, a small smirk dancing on his face, “Clearly.” Starlow could barely stand the sarcasm dripping from his voice. 

The Starspite floated over the bodies of her foes that now littered the ground, she frustratedly met his relishing gaze with a stoney one of her own. She was not going to give him the satisfaction of her embarrassment, “We should go find Mario and Luigi before it gets too late.”

The balent change of topic wasn’t going to stop Dreambert though, “So ungrateful. Do I at least get a thanks for saving you.” 

He was pulling her leg, she knew it, but she would give him what he asked for, “Oh great and mighty Prince Dreambert, thank you ever so much for saving me. Whatever would I, a poor damsel in distress, have done without my hero!” 

Her laying it on thick caused Dreambert to scoff and roll her eyes, “Fine, next time you're about to die i’ll remember to leave you.” his empty threat only earned a bemused laugh from Starlow in return. 

“You wouldn’t do that. What would you do without me?’ she teased.

The Prince shot an equally playful look back at her, “I don’t know, have some peace and quiet for a change, probably.” 

She put on her best pouty face in response causing the two to fall into a fit of giggles. She chanced a look over to her companion, Dreambert had his hand to his face softening the volume of his chuckles. His eyes crinkled at the edges as he smiled through his laughter, it was so… comforting. As soon as Starlow caught herself mesmerized by her friend she quickly shook her head. ‘This idiot… I can’t stand how mad he makes me.’ 

“Come on we have to find the brothers. Who knows how much trouble they could’ve gotten themselves in by now.” Dreambert gave her a nod in agreement and began to search for their missing friends.

She couldn’t afford to have Dreambert muddling up her thoughts anymore.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The night air was cool and damp, a refreshing change of pace after the heat that seemed ever present around the rest of the Island. Somnom Woods was beautiful, a dense and untouched forest with trees over centuries old. While it was not so easy to traverse through, the lushish scenery made it almost worth it. In the small clearing where they set up camp for the night Starlow could see how the moon’s beams fluttered with the wind between the canopy. A serene quiet fell over the forest only broken by the faint swaying of the leaves, so it caught her attention when she heard a loud rustling sound over by the team's tent.

Alert, she turned to the source relieved to see it was nothing more than the emergence of one of her companions, “Dreambert? Is everything okay?” she asked, confused as to what brought him out so late. 

Dreambert straightened, but quickly fell into a look of relief, “I just happened to wake up and noticed that you had gone from your bed.” he explained.

Starlow felt a grin play on her lips, “Awe, you were worried about me?”

“No!” he responded defensively, he must have realized how that sounded however and quickly changed his tone, “Yes… What in the stars are you doing out this late?” 

Deciding to cut him some slack, she answered his redirecting question, “I couldn’t sleep, I needed to get my mind off things.”

The Prince nodded, “Understandable things have been rather crazy as of late.” As he spoke Starlow noticed him making his way towards her, taking a seat comfortably at her side. She felt his arm brush at her side, almost causing the Sprite to shiver in apprehension. 

“Tell me about it.” She mumbled, eyes firmly fixated downwards, “Do you think things will really be alright?” her voice was quiet, in both an attempt to hide her emotions and to not wake the brothers.  
Dreambert was silent for a moment before replying, “I wish I could say for sure that, yes it will. But, I would be lying to both you and myself.” he looked down at his hands and folded them slowly, “But there is only so much good that can come from worrying about the future. If my time with all of you has taught me anything it’s that greater joy often comes from the present.” The Prince tilted his head to try and meet her eyes.

Much to her dismay she found herself unable to resist meeting that gaze, she huffed a dismissal laugh, “Really, we taught you that.”

“Definitely.” his response was simple and to the point, as if to not let Starlow question its legitimacy.

She found herself smiling at that, but still didn’t respond.

Dreambert’s face twisted into a look of concern that he quickly turned into a reassuring grin, “Before I met you all I cannot remember the last time I genuinely smiled.” He admitted.

“That doesn’t really surprise me.” her half-hearted insult was met with an unamused glare. Besides it wasn’t like Dreambert hadn’t told her about his past, Starlow would have guessed he wouldn’t have had much to smile about. 

Despite that they sat in a compatible silence. Starlow’s eyes were once again drawn to the dancing moonbeans on the soft grass, so light and enchanting. When she looked over at The Prince, she could tell they had caught his attention too. A light smile played on his face as his body seemed to resonate calm. 

As she watched him, she had a thought pop into her mind that she just could quite shake, “Can you dance?”

“What?”

Dreambert was caught off guard by this seemingly out of the blue question. Starlow realized she might have to explain her reasoning a bit, “I just thought, since you're a prince and all, that you would’ve had to learn that kinda stuff. I assumed that you must’ve learnt to ballroom dance or whatever as well.” 

Her friend slowly seemed to put together what she was saying. He narrowed his eyes at her before speaking, “Promise you won’t laugh.”

Surprised but still wanting her answer Starlow responded, “Sure, I won’t.”

“...Yes.” 

“Really!” The Starsprite didn’t know whether to be surprised or not, it just didn’t seem like something he would really do.

“Yes, I had to learn for attending stupid royal balls and other equally lavish events. I always hated it.” Dreambert grumbled, he did always seem to hate his royal duties, but she had always assumed that those huge parties would be fun.

“How come? Do you not like big parties?” she prodded.

The Prince tilted his head back, thinking, “Not necessary, I just always hated how formal everything was. It all felt like everything that the Royals, Elites and other wealthy guests said to you was all fake. It was all just a big charade and a way for people to flaunt their money.”

“Oh,”

Dreambert must have realized his pessimism wasn’t really helping the mood and quickly changed to a lighter note, “However my culture does have its own type of Ballroom dance.”

“For real?”

“Ya, I do think it’s rather beautiful. It is often done at large festivals, weddings, coronations and other cultural holidays or events.” He seemed quite enthusiastic as he often did when talking about his culture. It was rather jarring to see that love conflict with his hatred of being royalty. 

The Pi’illos enthusiasm made Starlow crack a smile, “I hope I get to see it one day.”

“How about you? Can you dance?”

The Starsprite laughed, slightly embarrassed at her own lack of culture, “No, I can’t. I never really learned how.” She admitted.

She looked back up at Dreambert only to see the cogs in his brian turing, as if concocting some brilliant plan. Starlow saw his eyes light up as he turned to her, “Why not let me teach you?” 

She recoiled in shock, looking at her friend incredulously, “huh?! I- I don’t know about that… I’m really not all that coordinated and I-”

“That doesn’t matter.” He looked into her eyes, he was serious.

Turning away, she couldn’t help but stammer nervously, “You would really do that?”

A soft smile crept onto his face, “Of course, only if you're okay with it.” 

Starlow hoped the shadows of the trees did enough to hide the redness that started seeping onto her face as she nodded. ‘Don’t be stupid Starlow, quit the nervousness.’

Dreambert rose from where he sat at her side, offering her a hand. Of course she didn’t need help up, it would just be rude to turn it down.

The Prince set them up, gently placing his hands in position on Starlow who was getting weirdly flustered by the closeness. ‘Chill out, you two have shared a bed before this is nothing to worry about,’ Starlow calmed her racing thoughts as she started to wonder what happened to it being cold out here. 

“It’s rather simple, I’ll lead and all you have to do is go with my movement alright.” Dreambert told her, looking down to see if she was ready.

“Ya, Ya I got it. Let’s just go already.” she was eager to get moving, in hopes that she would be too preoccupied with dancing to think about anything else.

The movements started slow and choppy, The Pi’illo taking the time to count to get the Starsprite use to the rhythm. Slowly Starlow got more comfortable and they picked up the pace a little, it became less scary and Starlow actually felt herself calm a bit. They waltzed back and forth, The Prince explaining some more complex movements to her in nothing more than a whisper. As she got the hang of it their movement became more languid, flowing gently from one to the next. It was as though nothing existed around her, nothing but the person in front of her. They giggled as Dreambert spun her and Starlow complained that he better not drop her during a dip, and despite them not being the best in the world it was perfect. 

What could’ve been minutes or hours passed by before the two slowed to a stand still, still laughing as they found themselves at a stop, “You’re a pretty fast learner.” The Prince remarked, fondness mixed with amusement in his voice.

“I could’ve had a worse teacher.” The warmth she felt lingered but she found herself leaning into it more now.

Dreambert huffed in reply, “I’ll take that as a complement.”

It took Starlow a while to realize her eyes were closed, when she finally decided to open them she found herself pressed lightly into her friends chest. 

And finally it hit her like a bag of rocks.

Met with her only thought being, ‘NO NO NO NO NO NO, PLEASE STARS NO!’ 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“DREAMBERT” she heard her scream like it came from somewhere outside of her body. 

He crashed to the ground in a heap, she could hear that the others were calling but for the life of her she couldn’t figure out what they were saying over the sound of Antasma’s cackling. She felt frozen in place, unable to look away as he created a giant portal. He said something to them that she couldn’t understand, stuck in her daze she didn’t know what was real or not. 

“Dreambert!” Mario’s call broke her from her trance as she saw the Brothers running over to their injured friend. Despite her terror she knew she had to help, steeling her resolve she took off toward her friends side. 

The rest of the team gathered around The Prince, his body limp as Mario turned him over, resting him on his back to get a better look at him. Luigi shot back in panic at the sight of his wound, and for once she didn’t blame him. A Jagged purple dagger like crystal shard was stabbed deep into his shoulder. The force it hit must have been great as his shoulder bent at a weird angle, she hoped it was nothing more than a dislocated shoulder but even that's best casinerio.

Adrenaline pumped through her veins, she gritted her teeth trying to channel her anger into the power to heal him, even if it was just a little. However her concentration was broken once again by Mario’s voice, “I’m going after him.” he said.

“No the hell you're not!” Starlow yelled, “Are you crazy you’ll die in there alone against Antasma!”

The determined look on the hero's face did not convince Starlow he was swayed by her reasoning, “So be it, I’ll fulfill the prophecy the right way even if it takes my life.”

Starlow opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Luigi, “Mario please, it’s not worth it!” the younger man cried. 

Mario looked between both of them, then at the portal, “I’m sorry, but you all sacrificed your lives for me. Now, it's my turn.” Without any further words he leaped into Antasma’s portal. 

“Mario!” his brother called after him, obviously overwhelmed the poor guy put his head in his hands.

“Dammit,” Starlow spat, now having more things to worry about. Figuring she could do nothing to help Mario right now she focused her attention on The Pi’illo’s limp body. As she checked his vitals she let out a choked sigh of relief, ‘He’s alive’. She shifted her focus to his wound, dark with fresh blood around the impaled crystal. Starlow knew that removing it would cause more bleeding but if she was going to heal him she would have to take it out and do it as quickly as possible, “Luigi!” she called to her frazzled companion, “Please I need you to help me.”

The man looked back at her, he swallowed a lump in his throat before responding with a feeble, “Y-yes? What can I do?” 

The Starsprite looked him straight in the eyes, trying to convey the severity of the situation in her tone, “I need you to pull out the shard stuck in Dreambert’s arm. I need to focus all my attention on the open wound and I can’t waste time by using my magic to pull out the shard.” she explained, she knew that despite how scared he was Luigi wouldn't let her down.

Taking a deep breath Luigi gripped his hand firmly on the shard, “Okay, t-tell me when.” 

She prepared herself concerning on the spot and readying her energy, “On the count of three you pull okay. 1… 2…” now was no time to panic, she needed to trust both Luigi and herself, Dreambert’s life depended on it, “3!” just as she instructed Luigi yanked the shard from Dreambert’s shoulder and Starlow released all her magic into the healing spell. 

It was done in a matter of seconds, exhausted Starlow almost passed out from the strain the magic took on her body but she forced herself to remain conscious when she heard Luigi exclaim, “He’s moving!”

Bringing her vision back into focus she saw Luigi learning protectively over The Prince, supporting his head from behind. All that remained of the hole was nothing more than new tissue and tattered clothes, it worked. 

A groan of pain brought Starlow back into the present, Dreambert scrunched his face into a wince but slowly opened his eyes. Unsure if it was from the exhaustion or relief a few tears fell from her eyes, “Dreambert?”

“Starlow?” his eyes flicked towards her then to the green clad brother, “Luigi? What happened? Where’s Mario? Where’s Antasma?”

The Starsprite quieted him with a few “shhh”s before starting to explain, “You got hit by some magic or something by Antasma and passed out. Me and Luigi had to remove a shard that got impaled into your arm and Antasma disappeared into that portal and Mario followed him.” 

“Mario followed him!” The Prince exclaimed, quickly trying to scramble himself up and wailing in pain as soon as he moved his arm.

“Are you an idiot I literally just said it just got injured. I could only heal the giant hole I couldn’t fix the fact that it might be broken or dislocated! You need to rest!” Starlow raised her voice hoping that would get the point through his thick skull.

Grimacing through the pain Dreambert reached for his sword that fell down beside him and got off the ground to hover weakly, “I can rest, if Mario’s in there without me and Luigi to help him he’s done for. That is Antasma’s world in which he is in control. Mario is basically at the mercy of a god!” he paused holding his shoulder again and turning back to face them, “Come on Luigi, we have to go.”

Luigi opened his mouth but Starlow cut him off before he could say anything, “No way! You are not going in there! You’ll die! I-” Starlow choked on her words, tongue tied by emotion as she held back tears, “I can’t lose you! I can’t lose any of you!” Her breaths were deep and ragged, she shut her eyes hard trying to block out all the noise.

“Starlow…” She felt Dreambert approach her slowly, she almost lost her composure as his hand gently cupped her face, “You won’t lose any of us.” she opened her eyes to find his staring right back at her. Letting go of her cheek he smiled reassuringly, “You can trust me okay, I promise.” 

Starlow smiled back and gave him a feeble nod, Dreambert turned to Luigi and Starlow would do what she always did, watch over them. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was over, it was finally done. Starlow found she had to keep saying that over and over to herself so that it would finally sink in. But she couldn’t really blame herself for it really, after months and months of what felt like an endless journey, they actually did it. 

When all the applause and grandeur was over and the heroes sat alone, the quiet felt heavy and uncertain. Starlow and her three friends sat in a secluded room by the medical office, one that was usually revered for meetings and the like but currently was serving as a recovery room for the four of them. After being checked and treated of their injuries, the nurses decided that the four of them wouldn’t want to be separated for too long. She was grateful that they did, with so much to process Starlow didn’t know what she would do without her companions' support. 

She gazed at the others, all stitches and bruises looking understandably rough under the bright blue shock recovery blankets they gave them all. Her eyes fell upon Dreambert, his right arm rested in a sling but she was grateful that the extended usage didn’t injure the shoulder even more. The Prince seemed to notice her gaze and gave her a feeble smile in return, “If you’re wondering when I’ll be able to use it again the doctor said two weeks. Plus it will not be so bad considering it’s my non-dominant arm.” 

Starlow scoffed, “I was thinking you're lucky it was only that bad.” her tone was harsher then she meant it to be, but Dreambert knew she was only joking anyway. 

Luigi across from her pulled his blanket tighter around him before bringing his leg up on the chair, “She’s right, it did look really bad.” he said, as he rested his head upon his knees.

Mario who up until now was gazing off into space seemed to finally tune into the conversation, “And you still went in to save me.” The man’s voice was flat. Starlow strained to pick out how he could possibly be feeling, but as per the usual Mario was sealed tight with his emotions. 

Dreambert met the plumber’s eyes, “Yes. Of course.” the answer was blunt, certain, “You have done the same for me, you’re my friend Mario and I would do it again in a heartbeat.” 

Starlow saw Luigi smile fondly from the edge of her vision and she couldn’t help but find she was doing the same. 

Mario put his head in his hands, he breathed a choked sigh either from the emotion or his bruised ribs before speaking again, “Thank you.” The hero regained his signature smile as he looked back up at them all, “I have to say, I’m gonna miss this.” Despite his refound chipper demeanor, Mario seemed legitimately sincere.

“Miss what?” Luigi tilted his head in confusion.

“Ya know, this.” Mario spread his hand to gesture to the rest of them.

“What do ya mean.” Starlow replied in mock indignation, “Didn’t we say that we would be sticking together for a long time. This is far from the end of the Dream Team!” 

Starlow saw the boys’ eyes light up. ‘Good. It was feeling a little down in here.’ she thought proudly to herself, ‘Sometimes the boys just need a bit of encouragement.’ 

Mario’s smile grew more genuine, he jumped to his feet as if filled with new energy, “You’re right Starlow, and that’s a promise!” noticing his loudness he laughed awkwardly and sat back down. Rubbing the back of his neck he spoke again at a more appropriate volume, “Ehhh, that actually reminds me of something. Ever since we got back I've been wondering, what’s next?” 

Starlow was a bit taken aback, the same thought plagued her, but hearing it out loud solidifies it. What was next for her, would she just go back to the council, continue to work on her studies? Did she want that? 

She was dragged from her thoughts by Dreambert clearing his throat, “Well for me, I need to rebuild back the kingdom. I for one have no clue how we are going to adapt to our new life.” He seemed so lost, Dreambert was always rather stressed when he didn’t have a goal.

“Well, why don’t we help!” Starlow blurted out. She was rather surprised herself, she didn’t even think about it before she said it, but the idea really did seem to appeal to her.

She quickly looked over at the brothers, she felt a tinge of regret. She didn’t want to force their hands or anything, besides they have their own work at home. She was sure that Princess Peach wouldn’t want her royal guards away for too long.

“I think that’s an amazing idea! What do you think, Luigi?” Mario exclaimed, immediately clearing all her doubt.

“For sure!” His brother responded, not as enthusiastic as his twin but no less sure.

The Prince stared at them, seemingly flabbergasted, “Oh, I couldn’t ask you all to do that. You have already done so much for me.” 

“Oh no you don’t. Don’t go being all humble now! We want to help you. That’s what friends do.” Mario stood up once more, “We can do it together! What da’ ya say?”

Dreambert’s eyes shone, Starlow could swear she saw tears glaze his eyes, “It would be an honour.”

Mario let out an enthusiastic cheer as the group dissolved into laughter. Dreambert was beaming, gratitude and compassion were the only things she could feel from his gaze. When the Prince met her eyes for once Starlow didn’t look away, she let herself bask in it. Even if she was just drawing this out longer, the Starsprite needed more time. 

For what exactly? Well she didn’t really know.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“A placement? Starlow are you certain?” Her former Mentor Celeste, looked at her sternly over the video call. 

Starlow met her look back with an equal one of her own, “Of course I’m certain! It is not only best for the greater good, but best for my studies as well.”

Celeste didn’t seem swayed by the other Starsprite’s reasoning, “The council hasn’t done placement’s for hundreds of years. What makes you think they will just give you one now?” 

“Because, I’m a part of a prophecy! It would be best for me to be down here on land in case anything happens.” she pushed, “It would be irresponsible for the council to not let me have one.” 

The older council member was smart, she often knew Starlow better than Starlow knew herself, but she seemed to resign in this argument, “Fine I’ll see what I can do. I’ll bring it to the council heads, but it’s up to them at that point.” Starlow mentally celebrated but quickly went back to listening when Celeste continued, “The Mushroom Kingdom huh, that was the place you were last time?” 

“Yes it is,” That runnin with Fawful felt like forever ago now, when really it only ended a couple months before she came to Pi’illo Island.

“I’m sure they’ll be lucky to have you,” Celeste's voice softened a bit causing Starlow to smile, “It might be handy to send the council a couple references, you do know the Princess right?”

“Ya Princess Peach, she’s here in the castle actually.”

“Good, the council may be better swayed by some high profile references.” The snow white star on the top of her head tilted slightly before she spoke again, “I really can’t assure you this will go through Starlow, but if this is what you want…”

“It is.” Starlow confirmed. she was set, there was no way to sway her judgement. 

As her call ended Starlow found herself glancing around her small room in Pi’illo Castle. Was her decision too rash? Was this implus decision really feasible? 

She honestly didn’t know. But she knew for certain she never asked the stars for something more than she did this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She knew she shouldn’t be sad, she would see the brother’s again in no time. Once her placement got accepted of course. However now in the moment after months of it being just the four of them the split was undeniably hard.

“I hope my letter of recommendation is received by the council in due time.” Peach gave Starlow a confident smile. 

“Thanks again for that Princess.” 

“Of course. It’s really the least I can do, it’ll be a pleasure to have you with us.” The Mushroom kingdoms ruler’s friendliness was always a reliable trait. Peach turned away from her to address her other royal companion, “It was an honour to meet you Prince Dreambert, if there is anything more we can do to help please don’t hesitate to let us know.”

The Prince bowed his head in respect before replying, “Many thanks, Princess. Your Kingdom will forever be known as much more than our ally but a dear friend.” 

Peach returned a curtsy before addressing the rest of the group as a whole, “Well I will go make sure our blimp is ready to go, I’m sure you four would like a chance to say goodbye.” she put her hand on Mario’s shoulder as the group gave her a nod of agreement, “Very well, goodbye for now, and don’t take too long you two.” she waggled her figure at the brothers good naturedly, before spinning on her heel and taking off.

The group was silent for a minute after the Princess left. What should they say? What were they supposed to see? Funny enough for all the stuff they prepared for, this was never one of the scenarios. 

“Well I guess this is goodbye?” Mario finally broke the tension. It was more of a question than anything else really.

“I guess so, yes.” Dreambert sighed.

“Not forever though, right?” Luigi piped up quickly as if trying to sew in a silver lining.

Luigi’s brother clapped him on the back, “Of course not! Just goodbye for now, we’ll see each other again in no time!”

Starlow gave a half hearted chuckle, “Hopeful next time under much better circumstances.” It was a joke as much as it was true.

The Prince shook his head, a small grin played on his face, “As dire as the circumstances were I… I believe I had the greatest time of my life.” His confession, while it may have seemed strange to an outsider, really was the truth for all of them, “Thank you for everything.” 

Mario placed his hand on Dreambert’s good shoulder, “I’ll miss you dude.” Mario quickly glanced over at Starlow, “Not you though, I expect to be seeing you as soon as the council says yes!” 

Starlow softens at the blind optimism of her friend, “Of course you will.” her mouth then turned up in a mischievous grin as she looked over to the younger brother, “Hear that Luigi, you won’t be getting rid of me that easily.”

The man in question rolled his eyes in fake exasperation, “Awe no, end the suffering already.” His act fell quickly as a smile crossed his face. Luigi eyes flicked over to The Prince, “I’ll miss you too, Dreambert. Thank you for believing in me.” The green clad brother reached out his hand offering it to the other man in a hand shake. 

When Dreambert grabbed it Luigi tugged his arm toward him pulling him into a spontaneous hug, The prince seemed surprised but soon returned it in kind. They pulled away quickly but Starlow was once again startled by Mario grabbing her foot and tugging her in while yelling, “Group Hug!” as he did his best to wrap his arms around the whole group. There were some laughs and exclamations of surprise, but all in all it really did feel nice.

When the four broke off, they heard a call from a ways behind them. She could just barely recognise the sound of Peach calling for the brother’s over the bustle of the port.

“Oh, That's our que to get going.” Mario grabbed onto his brother’s arm, “Come on Weegee can’t leave the Princess waiting.” The two pulled away from the others a bit, as they turned to find the Princess and their Blimp. 

“Bye see you both soon!” Luigi waved his final goodbye to the two.

“See you!” With that Mario and his brother took off.

Starlow and Dreambert watched them board the blimp and waved as they watched them disappear into the sky. The two waiting even after the ballon was far out of sight, 

After a while of watching the empty sky where their friends once had been, The Prince turned to address her, “What about you? I assume you have to get back to the Land of the StarSprites to get ready for your placement.” 

“That’s assuming the Council says yes.” She reiterated for what must have been the thousandth time, “Plus I’m not leaving just yet.” 

Dreambert seemed taken aback by her out of the blue declaration, “You aren’t? I thought you said you’d be leaving along with the others?”

“Well I was going to, but then I decided that you would basically be helpless doing everything on your own so I thought It’d be best for me to stay and help you a bit.” That was mostly the truth, she really didn’t want to leave Dreambert alone to deal with all the management and coordination of the island's restoration and integration. But she was omitting a few parts.

“Sure, you don’t just want an excuse to hang out with your best friend.” Dreambert's emphasis on those last words were a dead give away he was messing with her.

“Don’t you go projecting your own thoughts onto me, Princey.” She nudged him lightly, “You know you want me to stay.”

Dreambert seemed to ignore her teasing and respond to her honestly, “I do.”

Starlow’s heart skipped a beat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘I honestly don’t see why Dreambert hates Balls so much, that was a lot of fun!’ She was thinking about the night's events. They had planned the night as a way to celebrate all the work they had done for restoring the island and in establishing the new plan for Island leadership. Of course Broque Monsieur happily handed over control as long as he could continue with tourism on the island, something that worked well for all of them actually. The Party also served as a way to invite other neighboring royals to meet and be welcomed to the new old kingdom. It was lovely and a fun break from all the paperwork they’d been doing. 

Starlow also thought it was a nice way to spend her final night on the island. As she returned to her small room and removed the makeup that Lyra helped her so much with, she was alerted to the sound of the video phone on her wall ringing. Quickly wiping away the remaining eyeliner Starlow made her way to answer wondering who could be calling so late.

Pressing the answer button, she was surprised to be greeted by Celeste. The snowy white Starsprite gave Starlow a smile before greeting her, “Hello dear, I hope I didn’t wake you?”

“No, no you didn’t. I actually just got back, what’s up.” 

The other Starsprite nodded before proceeding to telekinetically pick up some papers that were at her side, “I actually just received some news to tell you.”

Starlow stifled a yawn genuinely confused as to what she was getting at, “Is it really important? I am coming home tomorrow you know?”

“I know I just thought you’d want to hear as soon as possible”

She tilted her head, “Okay, what is it.”

“You got the placement.”

Stunned silent Starlow was sure her mouth was agape, when she finally found her voice all she could utter was, “You’re- You’re being serious?”

Celeste breathed some breathy laughter, “It’s been approved. Of course, we want to have you home for a couple weeks to arrange a timeline and plan your work, but it’s official.”

Starlow felt tears prick at the corner of her eyes, but she was able to hold them back for the time being, “Thank you Celeste, I- I don’t know what to do now? I- I have to tell Dreambert he’ll be so excited.” Dreambert, it always came back to him didn’t it. 

The other Starsprite smiled, “Go ahead, that’s all I wanted to tell you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Frantic to share her news, Starlow quickly stammered at “goodbye.” Before taking off to find her friend

Starlow soon found herself at the door of her companion, it wasn’t too far from her room as the Prince has been living in a large suite of the castle’s hotel as the renovations occur. She stared at the mahogany, debating her next move. Usually she would just barge in unannounced but she assumed this time it might be best to give a warning. 

She knocked on the door briskly only to hear the prince call out, “just a moment.” and just as he said a moment later the door opened, “Starlow? Are you okay?” She figured he was alarmed by her use of proper visiting etiquette.

“Yes I’m great actually. May I come in?” 

Fumbling with the doorknob, Dreambert quickly opens the door wider to let her inside, “You don’t need to ask, of course you can.” 

The suite was rather large, but seeing as he would be living there for an unknown amount of time it was relatively modest for a person of Dreambert’s caliber. He didn’t complain obviously but Starlow wondered how it felt to be treated as a temporary guest in his own castle.

“So…” The Prince broke her out of her thoughts, “I thought you were tired, what brings you here so soon?” He had a point, it probably seemed weird for her to come by again so soon. The party only just ended a while ago.

“Well it’s my last night you know, I wanted to spend a little time with you after all the hustle and bustle.” She explained, once again mostly true, but she wanted to save the news for later.

Dreambert simply nodded, he unlike Starlow didn’t seem to be as quick to get undressed after the Ball. Then again he was much more used to formal dress then she was, “I almost forgot it was your last night.” he said after a minute of thinking, “It’s a long way home for you isn’t it?”

“Ya, it’s not a big deal though.”

Dreambert’s eyes wandered the room slightly and suddenly lit up at something behind her, “It’s a beautiful night, would you like to look at the stars from my balcony? It will be like our nights traveling.” 

“Sure.” She said enthusiastically, and she followed him out the large sliding glass door. 

Dreambert was right, the night sky was clear and a warm breeze blew lighty. The distant smell of the ocean was just a faint hint in the air, crisp and clean and fresh. She noticed the sheer white curtains that framed the balcony window from the inside swayed lightly in the wind. From below she saw some small groups walking outside the castle from so high above Starlow could just barely see their outlines in the street lights. 

“I’ll miss how warm it is here.” she found herself remarking without any forethought. 

“That’s all?” The Prince asked coyly.

“No, I also quite like all the tropical greenery.” 

Dreambert laughed at her shut down, “Well if it makes you feel any better, know you are always welcome here.” 

Still looking out at the view below her, Starlow responds, “That’s good. I figure now I’ll have a lot more opportunity to travel.”

“What do you mean?” The Pi’illo glanced side-eyed at her.

Starlow turned to him, unable to hold back her smile anymore, “I got the placement!” she could no longer contain the excitement.

He stared at her, wide eyes and mouth slightly agape. He blinked at her a couple of times, “You- you did?” Starlow nodded only to get a surprise of her own as The Prince’s arms wrapped around her tightly and spun her around in a quick circle, “Starlow that’s amazing!” he said, looking her in the eyes but still holding her firmly in a hug, “I knew you would.”

Giggling slightly she lightly pressed her forehead into the other’s chest, savouring the embrace for a couple seconds.

Dreambert seemed to have realised his rather intimate reaction though, and soon let go of the small Starsprite and cleared his throat, “Have you told Mario and Luigi yet I’m sure they’d be thrilled?” 

“No I haven’t, I figured I’d be better if I told them in the morning so I don’t accidentally wake them.” She took a pause, “Beside I thought I should tell you first.”

The Pi'illo’s face melted into a soft smile, “Thank you. I appreciate it.” 

They fell into a compatible silence, Dreambert once again moved to rest his arms on the thick intricately decorated railing. She watched from the corner of her eye as he gazed off into the distance, “Starlow?” he spoke suddenly.

“Yes?”

Still not looking at her, he continued, “Do you remember the night after we first met?” 

“Of course I do, why do you ask?” she was rather confused on where he was going with this.

“I always wondered, did you know why I was scared?” he looked down, “Is that why you said the things that you said? You wanted to comfort me, but still save my ego?”

Starlow’s mouth felt dry, she forced herself to swallow before answering, “I did.”

The Prince took a glance at her before breathing a heavy sigh, “I thought so, when I realised this, that you went out of your way to comfort and bend around the sensitivities of someone you just met… I knew that… You were the kindest person that I have ever met.”

Eyes wide with shock The Starspirte starred her friend, who was still poignantly looking forward. He seemed like he was debating something his pupils darting back and forth sharply.

He folded his arms on the balcony banister before speaking quietly again, “So… it was really no surprise that…” another breath, “That… I... ended up, falling for you…” 

Starlow felt a lump form in her throat, she could hear her heartbeat roaring over the ambient sounds of the night. Mind blank, she couldn’t speak, just watch.

Dreambert buried his head into his folded arms, as if trying to escape from the situation he just created.

Baffled unsure if this was a dream, she managed to take a deep breath. Emotions swirled in her head; surprise, fear, uncertainty, excitement, happiness, it all felt so intense and her brian for once in her life stopped working. Still unsure of her next course of action Starlow found her voice, “Dreambert?”

The Prince lifted his head up tentatively, nervous as to what she was going to say. 

They both must have been surprised when Starlow didn’t say anything, in what must have been the most impulsive move of her life she quickly leaned forward and closed the distance between them. Lips connecting, it was nothing more then short couple seconds of an inexperienced peck, but electricity shot through Starlows body. Blinded by the thrill of what felt like everything finally coming together. Heartbeat racing from the overwhelming joy. When she pulled away she could still feel her lips tingling and the buring heat that was now radiating off her face. 

Shaky and shallow breaths were the only thing either of the two of them could do for a few minutes. Starlow eventually gathered the courage to try and look at Dreambert again, they locked eyes and Starlow felt herself smile in relief.

He was happy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mysterious Prophecy is mysterious. Don’t worry, all will be explained in due time.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading. I love reading all sorts of comments and criticism.

**Author's Note:**

> I love receiving all sorts of comments, questions and criticisms. Thank you all.


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